Ontario’s government leaders were warned by high-ranking transportation ministry staff of non-compliant and potentially faulty manufacturing of over 500 girders for the $1.4-billion Herb Gray Parkway, but no action was taken until seven months later after hundreds were in the ground, according to documents released Monday.
Senior transportation ministry engineers first informed the minister’s office in mid-December 2012 of concerns the concrete beams were not compliant with Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and non-certified welders were being used, according to emails and reports obtained under a Freedom of Information request by the province’s NDP party.
There was plenty of follow-up correspondence warning of potential troubles by MTO staff regarding the girders as they started to be installed, yet no action taken by government.
The Liberal government was in transition at the time with the resignation of Premier Dalton McGuinty and appointment of Kathleen Wynne in February, 2013 as his replacement.
The initial transportation and infrastructure minister through January, 2013, made aware of the girders was Bob Chiarelli who made no response. He was replaced the following month by Glen Murray.
Documents show the government initially had more concerns about parkway construction delays and had MTO staff spend months working with the project’s contractor – a Spanish-led consortium known as the Windsor-Essex Mobility Group – to see if the issue could be resolved with the girders remaining in place.
The massive concrete beams are used to support numerous bridges and tunnels on the 11-kilometre parkway – described as Ontario’s largest infrastructure project.
MTO’s lead on the parkway project, Director Fausto Natarelli, expressed frustration in mid-February through a series of emails to the project’s lead from Infrastucture Ontario over the Spanish contractor’s failure to address the girder’s non-compliance, refusal to stop installing them or being unable to get more senior government members to respond.
“We need a conversation with more senior officials,” he wrote to Derek Toigo, IO’s senior vice-president for civil infrastructure. “I have no confidence in you – or frankly your organization to act in the provincial interest.”
Murray didn’t get active on the girder issue until April, 2012, according to the documents.
He explained Monday it was really never a public safety issue until he looked into it further through several meetings with construction experts and parkway contractor.
As soon as he became alarmed there was a potential safety issue, he ordered further study in mid-June, Murray said.
Still, parkway girder installation continued.
It was not until a visit to Windsor by Wynne in July 2013 when an order was issued to WEMG to stop installing the girders pending a full investigation.
Local MPP Percy Hatfield (NDP – Windsor-Tecumseh) attacked the government during question period Monday in Queen’s Park when he alleged both the government and Wynne only acted out of fear of an ongoing Star investigation on the girder issue and its potential revelations which may impact five looming by-elections across Ontario on Aug. 1.
“When the Liberals thought people’s safety was at risk, they looked the other way,” Hatfield said. “When they thought Liberal seats were at risk, they suddenly reversed course because they feared media exposure.
“You only acted when the scandal was going to break.”
Murray responded any allegations on lack of action on the girders by him or the government are “flat wrong.”
“Prior to June, there was not a word of discussion on this being a safety issue,” he said in the Legislature in response to Hatfield. “It was an issue of non-compliance (with CSA standards).”
Once the girders stopped being installed under Wynne’s orders, Murray soon after launched an independent expert study which included destroying nearly a dozen of the girders so their engineering, design and how they were constructed could be examined.
“When I did become aware I took strong action, including the independent review,” Murray said.
Findings of the government-appointed girder study team released last fall found twisted strands of steel, concrete a centimetre or two thick where it should have been six centimetres, engineer drawings ignored during production, steel cores (known as cages) out of alignment and other steel parts changed to different materials without approvals.
A Star investigation further detailed how the Brighton Beach girder plant for several months during production operated without a quality control manager or chief engineer daily on site.
The findings combined with public backlash led to WEMG’s decision in early November to remove and demolish 320 installed parkway girders and tossing the subcontractor responsible for their manufacturing – Spanish company Tierra Armada and partner Freyssinet Group of France – from the project.
Their replacement is anticipated to add millions to the cost of the project at WEMG’s expense and has delayed completion of the border feeder highway by nearly a year until the end of 2015.
Messages left with a WEMG spokeswomen regarding Monday’s released documents did not receive a response.
“During a large-scale infrastructure project, it is inevitable for various non-compliance issues to arise, ranging from choice of grass seed to structural aesthetics,” said Damian Joy, recently appointed by the government as interim executive director for the parkway project.
“Should a matter become a safety concern, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Ontario would promptly advise the minister and the minister’s office of such concerns.”
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