2009

25 November 2009 Railway Tunnel Costs Increase The Brockville Tunnel.     Brockville Ontario - The restoration of the north end of Brockville's historic railway tunnel will cost taxpayers an additional $50,000.   At their regular meeting last night, city councillors approved additional spending of that amount to replace a broken door and stabilize a buckling wall, raising the cost of the ongoing project to nearly $400,000.   The motion includes the awarding of a $16,670 contract to the firm Dennis Cadieux Contracting to replace the wooden entrance doors to the north portal.   Operations director Conal Cosgrove told council that when workers at the north portal removed the wooden doors, they fell apart. "We were not expecting to have to replace those," he said.   Meanwhile, the west retaining wall leading to the tunnel is "bulging out," the result of tree roots shifting the stones, said Cosgrove.   Workers need to push that wall back and deal with the trees on the slope, said Cosgrove. "If we don't, then within the next couple of years we're going to have to do it, or all those stones are going to be at the bottom of the gorge there," he said.   The new spending adds to a project already costing the city $334,415, bringing the revised tally to $384,415.   Work on the north portal restoration began in late July and has been continuing, with the restoration of the main entrance wall now completed, notes a staff report to council.   Only some grading work and the restoration of the two dry stacked stone retaining walls remain, it adds.   Cosgrove showed councillors pictures of the site, with the retaining wall bulging outward on the west side and curved inward on the east as a result of stabilization work.   It makes sense to do the project now as workers are preparing to connect those retaining walls to the restored face of the portal entrance, said Cosgrove.   City staff will try to get the extra $50,000 from overall surpluses from capital projects, however, failing that, the motion also allows for spending "at the discretion of the city manager and director of finance."   Councillor Gord Beach said more than $16,000 seems like a hefty sum to pay for new doors.   Cosgrove replied that Cadieux will provide cedar doors with metal hinges that are replicas of the original, an explanation that did not satisfy Beach.   The work on the stacked stone walls was removed from the original north portal project tender, noted Councillor Jason Baker.   While he supported the motion, Baker wondered why the work was "missed" the first time.   Cosgrove agreed that item, which was removed as a cost-saving measure, should not have been taken out of the original contract.   When workers removed part of the west wall to do the work on the entrance, that caused the wall to bow out more, he said.   Councillor Stu Williams suggested vehicular traffic on Tunnel Avenue likely added to the stress causing the retaining wall to bulge out.   The $334,000 cost proved a lot higher than the city had expected, ultimately prompting officials to take the rare step of not including a contingency fund, said Cosgrove.   The initial contract the city approved in July was actually for $364,415, which did at the time include a $30,000 contingency.   Mayor David Henderson said he has been talking to Brockville historian Doug Grant about holding a ceremony next spring to mark the reopening of the tunnel's north end.   To which Councillor Jeff Earle jokingly replied the ceremony could mark the "first train through."   Ronald Zajac.

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