Ottawa Construction News staff writer
The long-delayed Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge is nearing completion.
“There is still some work that needs to be completed on the bridge, including surveys, potential cables adjustment and overall engineering commissioning,” said Wayne Newell, general manager of the City of Ottawa’s infrastructure services department “The progress of this work will determine the precise opening date.”
The bridge has been scheduled to open in September. The actual opening date will be moved up, possibly to as early as July – but it is still a long ways from the original scheduled completion planned for the spring of 2012, a prospect dashed when the original contractor, Concreate USL Ltd. of Bolton, went out of business and the city called on the surety provider, The Guarantee Company of North America, to complete the work, originally budgeted at $48 million.
Guarantee contracted with Horseshoe Hills Construction Inc., a business founded by former Concreate USL. The bonding company decided to work with Horseshoe Hills in part because of the much greater costs it would incur if it needed to remobilize the entire project under a new general contractor.
