Late on Friday the City of Port Coquitlam announced a $3.4 million increase in the cost of the Coast Meridian Overpass to a figure of over $135 million – and a possibility of further price increases exist. I wrote in a piece earlier this week where I stated I was shocked the cost had gone up since the City indicated this was a final figure or a fixed-price project.
An individual from the City wrote to ask me to change the piece since he / she “can not [sic] come up with anything that would substantiate [the] phrase that this was a fixed cost project”.
I called four people who attended many or all of the CMO meetings and asked them the following, “As of December 2007, did you understand that the CMO was a fixed-cost project with a final price of $132 million?”. All four said YES. In addition, when door knocking last night I asked 12 residents the same question and 100% said YES that they thought the price was confirmed and did not know the figure could continue to increase.
So where did I get the idea this was a fixed- price project? Directly from materials supplied by the City of Port Coquitlam, conversations at public meetings and information on the City’s website.
The Fall 2008 CMO Update document published by the City in September 2008 states the following on page 2:
{The $94.5 million fixed-price contract…}
Then, on the following page on the CMO section of the PoCo website:
{The final project budget for the [CMO] is $132 million…which is a fixed price (including inflation)…the City does not anticipate changes of any consequence to the final CMO budget figure.}
In addition, the Tri-Cities News wrote in late 2007 that “The City said it does not anticipate the bill to go any higher as the design-build contract is a fixed price.”
So what does this all mean? Some may say this is an attempt by the City to hide what is really going on. I disagree. For me, I believe it is a matter of semantics. The language used in government can differ greatly from the language used by the rest of us.
Further emails between myself and the City over the last 18 hours seem to show that the “fixed-price” contract was for one part of the project (the physical structure construction) and not the entire project (e.g., land acquisition, relocating utilities, etc.). While this may be the case it was really not what the general public understood. I have encouraged the City to communicate this now (and in future projects) with simple wording such as “We have a figure of $132 million for the Coast Meridian Overpass. There is a possibility this number could go up as it is NOT a final fixed-price for the total project.”
Now that we have this new cost information conversation must now turn to how much a tax increase are Port Coquitlam residents going to endure? What services will be cut? Which projects will be deferred and for how long? Are other funding sources available? This conversation will certainly be interesting.
What do you think?
I was at the December meeting and the Mayor, Councillors and staff were crystal clear that $132 million was the final cost. This is an outrage. For the city council to now say that taxes will not go up because of their blunder is ridiculous.
The newspapers reported that the bulk of the most recent cost overrun was for utility relocation. But that is included in the original $132 million budget. And just after that is the word “contingencies”. If that is not for additional unanticipated costs, what is it for?
I understand the congestion at the Shaughnessy underpass is a major issue but honestly I don’t see how the Coast Meridian overpass is going to help things much. In my view, The Coast Meridian overpass for the most part will serve the residents of the North Side of Poco trying to escape Poco and for people on the south side to shop at Costco and I think both will just result in more overall traffic not less.
Personally, I am a resident of the North Side of Port Coquitlam and I may stand corrected but I don’t think it will be very useful to me. It seems to me it will serve as another major feeder into the Mary Hill bypass and will only cause further congestion onto that route.
I have a feeling that this project will end up being about as useful as the Shaughnessy pedestrian overpass. What a complete joke that is. The only practical use that thing has is if you want a workout.