The City’s director of O-Train construction says the system is working as it should, amid reports that faulty concrete has been used in construction of the massive LRT project, set to launch this fall.
As the Ottawa Citizen first reported Tuesday, Access to Information requests by local activist Ken Rubin uncovered 644 pages of non-conformance reports regarding the $2.1 billion construction project.
Speaking to Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll, Rubin says most of the issues had to do with concrete.
“The records show sometimes the concrete wasn’t mixed properly, it came on-site too late, it was applied wrongly,” he said. “Quite a few different problems.”
The author of this article has not seen the documents in question.
Speaking with Newstalk 580 CFRA, Steve Cripps, Director of O-Train Construction with the City of Ottawa, says the non-conformance reports indicate an issue where a problem was identified and corrected.
“This project, being of the magnitude that it is, has a very robust and comprehensive quality management system that meets international standards,” he says. “So, the non-conformance reports that have been identified in the article really prove that that system is working. The fact that the contractor himself is identifying non-conformances and taking the appropriate action, to me, is a very positive outcome.”
Cripps says he does not believe the identified issues represent any safety risk.
“The quality management system is really intended to ensure performance of the system, durability of the system, but most importantly safety of the system, too,” he says. “The City has an independent safety auditor, who won’t sign off on this project until all of the checks and balances have been done.”
He also says he has no reason to believe there will be any further delay to the launch of LRT.
“All of these non-conformance issues are dealt with as the project proceeds,” he says. “There’s nothing in here so far that would indicate that remedial action will impact the completion of this project.”
RTG had originally said it would have the LRT ready to hand over to the City by May of 2018, but admitted it would not meet that deadline, in large part because of delays caused by the 2016 sinkhole on Rideau Street. The current handover date is November 2, 2018.