Scheduling troubles between the project’s contractor and his subtrades has led to a delay of at least seven more months for completion of LaSalle’s new $12.2-million civic complex which was to open this month.
During a visit this week by The Star, less than a dozen workers were visible, the building’s exterior is far from complete, while rows of bare studs remain untouched on the ground floor inside.
The project’s contractor Piroli Construction has informed the town that he hoped to complete the project by the end of July, said Mayor Ken Antaya.
Antaya was taken on his first tour of the construction site Thursday and expressed discontent at the slow progress.
“Obviously it’s not going to be on time,” Antaya said. “The contractor has indicated issues with his subcontractors and the scheduling.
“We’d prefer being in there at the end of this year. That was a prerequisite for this project. We recognize these things can happen.”
More than 30 full-time employees of the town have been shifted into temporary quarters the past two years at the Windsor Crossing outlet mall. They include workers from the town’s building, planning, payroll, clerk and property tax departments, plus the town’s library.
According to its contract with LaSalle, Piroli must cover rental costs of between $15,000 and $20,000 per month for the town’s employees to remain housed longer than anticipated at the outlet mall.
Aside from the contractor’s tardiness, Antaya said he was impressed during his tour Thursday by the work being done by Piroli and also how the project appears to be on budget.
“I’m not going to say this has gone smooth, but it’s not gone totally bad, either,” he said. “The product looks good and on budget. If I have choice whether it’s on budget or late, I will take late.
“Obviously you can just look at the site and see there are months of work left. It’s to nobody’s benefit for us to pull cards out of our sleeve and say ‘you owe us for this or that.’ You can’t say we are going to get somebody else on site to get it done. We have a group in place and an architect responsible. They know what’s at stake. Delaying it further with a legal hassle would be detrimental to this community.”
The new municipal complex on Malden Road is part of a $32 million plan to remake the town’s facilities.
The plan included a new building on the Vollmer Complex site for its environmental services workers, which was handled by another contractor and is complete.
There are also renovated and new buildings on Normandy Road for the town’s fire and police departments, which Piroli also delivered this summer a bit late, but within budget.
“Being a little late on police and fire seems to have compounded everything for them where they are substantially late on this,” Antaya said. “But walking through it today, it does look like a quality product.”
Piroli is also wrestling with concerns raised by the largest local construction labourers’ union which was recently forced to resort to Ontario’s privacy commissioner to get Piroli’s contract documents released from the town.
Local 625 of the Labourers International Union of North America handed over documents to The Star which show in several categories more than one company being listed on the fire department headquarters contract for each subcontracting job.
That has created union fears of possible bid-shopping — a process which involves a contractor seeing two or more companies bid on the same work and taking the company with the cheapest price.
“I’m not going as far as saying it’s bid-rigging yet,”said Rob Petroni, business manager for LIUNA Local 625. “We’re still investigating. There’s a number of subcontractors that have come forward and given us tons of information.”
Piroli’s actions on its bid process in LaSalle have also been called into question by the Windsor Construction Association after the $6.98 million fire department building came in $1.2 million, or 17 per cent, below competitor bids.
Piroli’s bid of $12,233,299 on the town hall was also $1 million less than the next lowest bid and more than $200,000 lower than architect JP Thomson’s $12,450,000 estimate for the job.
Construction association president Jim Lyons approached LaSalle town council last year suggesting it needed to tighten its policies on tender bids, noting that Piroli also hired different mechanical and electrical subcontractors than those named in the original bid. He suggested that was unethical.
“We have just responded to concerns expressed by our members regarding some things on that job,” Lyons said.
“We have satisfied our concerns in that respect and we have exchanged correspondence with the Town of LaSalle and made recommendations going forward. We hope they adopt our ideas into the specifications so situations like this don’t occur in the future.”
Robert Piroli recently defended himself against both the accusations by LIUNA and the construction association, saying he treats his subcontractors fairly.
“My subs get paid religiously,” he said. “And I have probably the best workplace safety rating in Windsor. My WSIB rate is under four per cent. It’s all defamation of name; there is no truth there.”
Antaya said the town shouldn’t be dragged into a dispute between Piroli and his subcontractors or the construction association.
“These are issues between the contractor and his subs,” he said. “You hand things over to the contractor when you sign the contract and he turns it back when he is done.
“I’m not going to defend the contractor, obviously. I don’t know everything that’s happened between him and his subs. I know he is going to have to pay the late penalties according to the provisions in our contract. It’s an inconvenience to us, but a cost to them.”
- with files from Star reporter Chris Thompson
