On Monday, the provincial public works department put a limit on the size of trucks that can go over the left bridge at Placentia.
This came after someone inspected the bridge.
Interestingly enough, the same department had a tender call out last May to replace the bridge they just put restrictions on.
A few months later - In August, 2011 to be exact - the department cancelled the tender because the only bidder came in almost $20 million above that they budgeted. Here’s what the release said would happen:
With the bid for this tender coming in so high, the department will immediately begin a full review of the existing bridge to provide more details around the exact condition of the current structure, and costing and potential years of service life for a rehabilitated structure. The review will also help determine whether the scope of work for a replacement structure can be revised to make the project more cost-effective.
Now being off budget and behind schedule is not new for provincial public works. In fact, since 2003, this sort of stuff is the norm.
- srbp -