Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 9264 |
| Work Detail | Leaders of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project led reporters on a tour of the Windsor end of the project Thursday to dispel doubts about progress being made on the future span. And they made their point. Where a year ago green fields and trees marked the Windsor end of the planned bridge, today trucks, bulldozers, and other heavy equipment criss-cross the land, creating an access road and delivering vast amounts of gravel and fill dirt to shore up the site of the enormous project. Canada has spent more than $100 million so far on site preparations for inspection plaza and perimeter road on the Windsor side. Hundreds of construction crews have gotten specialized training for the work. In fact, so much work is underway on the Windsor end that reporters wondered aloud why there wasn't the same beehive of activity yet on the Detroit end, in the neighborhood of Delray where the bridge will land and where a U.S. Customs and Border Inspection plaza will be built. The answer, said Mike Cautillo, president and CEO of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the Canadian entity planning the project, is that soil conditions on the Windsor end required much more preliminary work than soil on the Detroit end did. The soil in Windsor tends to be more soggy than on the Detroit side, he said. To drain away the underground dampness, crews have buried thousands of wick drains, which are sock-like fabric elements that draw the moisture out of the soil and away to the Detroit River. That allows the soil to settle and compact to a consistency needed for the project. And to build up the bridge approaches, crews have delivered about 1 million tons of gravel and fill dirt to build up the ground. In addition, relocation of utility lines is underway and continues. All the work building up the soil to receive the Windsor end of the bridge remains just site preparation, not actual bridge construction. But as Cautillo told reporters, "Let's not underestimate everything that's been done. This is very significant progress." On the Detroit end, he added, the seeming lack of activity is deceptive. Land acquisition, building demolition, and utility relocation has been underway and continues in Delray. "This is not 'Let's do something on the Canadian side out of sequence.' This was programmed to be exactly delivered the way it's being delivered," he said. Without doubt the next big bang of the project is yet to come -- the issuance of the Request for Proposals (RFP) to three teams of contractors, engineers, architects, and other specialists that have been chosen as finalists to bid on the project to build the bridge. Cautillo said in mid-2015 he expected to issue the RFP by the beginning of this year. But so far delays and complexities have held it up. Asked multiple times Thursday when the RFP might go out, Cautillo repeated his earlier assurances that it will be "soon," but he went no further than that. Andy Doctoroff, who serves as Gov. Rick Snyder's point man on the bridge project, stood by Cautillo's side Thursday and said that land acquisition of the Detroit side is moving ahead on schedule, despite a pending dispute with Ambassador Bridge owners Manuel (Matty) Moroun who owns land in the path of the bridge. Nothing will delay the project on the Detroit end. "Everything on the United States side is on schedule, including land acquisition," Doctoroff said. Even so, the hoped-for completion date of 2020 looks doubtful for now. Cautillo estimated that designing and building the bridge will take about four years. Once an RFP is issued, the three final teams will need several months to prepare their responses, and the authority then will need time to go over their bids. Presuming a contract is awarded late in 2017, that could push the opening date for traffic back into 2021 or so. That potential delay in opening the bridge to traffic may disappoint backers. But any doubts that the Gordie Howe International Bridge project is stalled or not happening can now be put to rest. Canada doesn't spent all that money and put all those construction crews to work on a phantom project. |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Construction |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/2016/09/08/detroit-windsor-bridge-cautillo-howe/90007528/ |
