14 hours ago
Sub-par Chinese steel delayed B.C.'s Pattullo Bridge replacement, industry advocate claims
An advocacy group for the Canadian steel sector is pinning construction delays on B.C.'s Pattullo Bridge replacement, in part, on the use of steel from China.
'That steel came from Asia and both cost jobs in the Lower Mainland in B.C. and cost time,' Keenan Loomis, president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, told Global News on Thursday.
'I think that if the decision had gone to Canadian fabricators, that right now there would be cars driving over the Pattullo Bridge.'
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The new four-lane Pattullo replacement was originally meant to be complete by 2023, but now has a target date of late 2025. The estimated price tag has also increased from $1.37 billion to $1.64 billion.
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Loomis first raised the concerns in a presentation to the legislature's select standing committee on finance and government services earlier this week.
He told Global News the Chinese bid came in at $20 million under the competing Canadian offer, but said the result is steel that is not always engineered to Canadian standards.
That means that when the material arrives on site, 'there's a lot of fixes that are required.'
'In fact, Canadian fabricators are being brought in right now to do all the upgrades that are needed to bring this bridge online,' he said.
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'You also have to look at, overall, the total installed cost … ultimately, we ended up spending a lot more to fix all the defects.'
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B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation and Transit called Loomis' claims 'pure speculation.'
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It said Fraser Crossing Partners, the consortium building the bridge, undertook a competitive bid process to source its materials, and that structural steel fabrication was being overseen by engineers with professional designations in B.C.
'Delays to the construction of the new bridge were a result of major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted sectors across the global economy including construction,' the ministry said in a statement.
'A full-time quality oversight team at the fabrication site in China maintained a continuous presence on the shop floor throughout production shifts to ensure quality requirements were being met. Both FCP and the Province had full-time quality representatives at the fabrication site.'
All steel used in the project also passed chemical and mechanical testing, it said.
BC Conservative transportation critic Harman Bhangu said claims of substandard Chinese steel raise serious safety and budgetary concerns.
'We should do a check to see which projects throughout British Columbia are using this steel, and we should have a full investigation into it because public safety should be number one,' he said.
Bhangu pointed to Victoria's $105 million Johnson Street Bridge replacement, which opened in 2018, years late and nearly $10 million over budget due to substandard Chinese steel.
'It is unbelievable that it takes us this long to build a bridge; it is actually a shame,' Bhangu said.
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'We need to start using some of our own resources, get our steel industry going, get our minerals going, and we need to get that to market and start building right here in B.C. … and it can't always be the cheapest bid, because we know the cheapest bid won't always be at that price or on time.'
The controversy comes as B.C.'s NDP government also faces heat over BC Ferries' decision to procure its next four major vessels from a Chinese shipyard, a move it says will save $1.2 billion.
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No Canadian shipyards entered a bid for the job, though B.C. shipbuilding giant Seaspan said it couldn't compete with foreign yards given there were no incentives for local builders in the competition.
Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled new measures to protect and incentivize Canada's steel and aluminum sectors, in the wake of punishing U.S. tariffs and a simmering global trade war.
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Loomis said it was a good start towards revitalizing the industry.
'Finally, people are waking up to the fact that others are not playing by the trading rules that we seem to be holding ourselves to account to,' he said.
'And so it's a whole new world, but we really need to be mindful of where our dollars are being spent.'
