Mountain View County will not be pursuing legal action regarding delays in the completion of the $2.8-million Big Prairie Bridge project, said Deputy Reeve Patricia McKean.
After it was announced in late November that the project would not be completed on schedule on Nov. 30, the county sought legal advice about possible options for having the project resume immediately.
"We had legal counsel look at it and they are advising not to pursue anything,î McKean said following last week's regularly scheduled council meeting. "So we will wait for spring for them to complete construction. I am disappointed, because I'm not sure why we had a contract in the first place because it doesn't seem to matter that they (contractor) didn't keep up their end of it.î
The bridge is being constructed over the Little Red Deer River northwest of Cremona to replace the former bridge, which was destroyed in a still-unsolved arson fire in 2009. The project cost is being shared 50-50 by MVC and Alberta Transportation.
On Nov. 30 the county announced that opening was delayed until at least spring 2013.
Lawrence Haddow, president of Trevcon Enterprises, the company contracted to complete the bridge, told council last month that a late start on the project ñ in July 2012 instead of the scheduled start time of June ñ as well as some poor weather and a shortage of workers due to other projects the company was working on had caused the delay.
Work has now been stopped on the project due to winter conditions and will not resume until April or May, he said.
McKean said she will be asking administration to ensure that the county has a representative at the construction site once work resumes.
"I'm hoping that we have somebody at least daily out to see the progress, to see that they are keeping up to their end (of the contract),î she said. "I'm going to ask for that, because I think we need to be having our own project manager on site to see the progress first hand.î
Late penalties against the contractor will not come into effect until the first day construction resumes in the spring, council heard earlier.
The county says those penalties should be $1,350 a day; the contractor says it should be $800 a day.
