Report slams Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge project

An independent consulting firm has issued a stinging report to the City of Ottawa about the long-delayed pedestrian and cycling bridge over the Airport Parkway.

The SEGManagement Consultants report detailshow a series of problems resulted in a schedule delay of three years, and saw the project's cost balloon from$6.9 million to $11.55 million.

"There were deficiencies in the management of the project," the report said.

The bridge,originally scheduled to be complete in October 2011, is now expected to be complete in late 2014.

The reportfound that theproject schedule did not change despite the early problems and that there was"limited evidence of rigorous schedule management prior to 2012."

The initial delays shrunk the one-year construction period to just fourmonthsin what two bidders described as a "totally unrealistic" schedule, according to the report.

"SEG didnot find any record of response from the City," the report said."Thedifficulties encountered by the high profile of this project have generated significant public criticism; and theproject is viewed as a failure by project staff, senior management and elected officials."

The report also pointed out that the Cityhasalack ofperformance indicators to monitor the delivery of its projects.

"The bridge project had significant issues. However, there are no comparable data to determine if this is ananomaly or a systemic problem," the report said.

Poor communication

Despite the public controversy and concern generated by thelack of progress on the bridge, the report said there was poor communication about the project.

"Communication with the public occurred at avariety of staff levels and with the public and elected officials without any apparent coordination orcommunications strategy."

The report went on to describe how the problems may not have intially been known by council or city staff.

"Even though there was significant email communication (bothinternally and externally) and monthly project reports, there is no documentation to indicate that seniormanagement and elected officials were made aware of issues during the initial construction period of theproject," the report said.

SEG said new management and protocols were developed after April 2012, which improved the roll out of the project.

"Facilitated scheduling meetings are now held on a regular basis andevery attempt is made to forecast completion of critical tasks," the report said.

Committee to review recommendations

SEG submitted the report to theFinance and Economic Development Committee, along with nine recommendations to improve future projects.The report was posted online Tuesday evening prior to the committee's meeting on March 4.

Deputy city manager Nancy Schepers issued a memo to the mayor and city councillors about the report on Tuesday evening. She wrote that the City has already "moved proactively on several fronts" to improve project management protocols and that itwill review SEG's recommendations to "better mitigate risks" in the future.

"SEGs review recommends potential enhancements to the Citys project, communication andrisk management policies and processes in order to mitigate future risks," the memo said. "While staff has not had an opportunity to review SEGs findings in detail, I will be working closely with the GeneralManager of Infrastructure Services to develop and implement a set of actions to address eachof them. Further, this action plan will include a process to evaluate progress against each of therecommendations and implementation of any necessary remedial or corrective action in respectof the departments processes, procedures or personnel."