The City of Montreal has awarded two contracts for work totaling 100 million to a company which has just been placed on its “grey list” due to disastrous performance during a recent project, where problems followed one after the other. for four years.
Posted at 7:10 p.m.
The performance of the Duroking company was deemed unsatisfactory during endless work to repair water pipes in the Pointe-Saint-Charles district, which should have made it ineligible for municipal contracts for a period of two years.
However, new contracts for work in Montréal-Nord and Pointe-aux-Trembles were awarded to it last November, shortly before the company was officially placed on the gray list by the executive committee on December 18. .
“By awarding these contracts, the City is rewarding a company that has caused significant inconvenience to citizens. The company can continue to proceed as if nothing had happened,” denounced the mayor of the Saint-Laurent borough, Alan De Sousa, member of the opposition at city hall, Monday during the meeting. of the municipal council.
Duroking took more than four years rather than the two that was planned to replace water pipes under Grand Trunk Street in the South West borough. Due to major site management problems, the street had to be excavated and closed several times.
Residents of the street therefore had to deal with dust, noise and the comings and goings of heavy machinery in front of their homes throughout this time.
Last April, a resident of the area strongly denounced the situation to the municipal council, submitting a petition signed by 250 people who asked to be compensated because of the problems they endured.
-The City sent 14 notices to Duroking during the duration of the project to express its dissatisfaction, without the situation improving, underlined Mr. De Sousa. He said it would have been necessary to act more quickly to prevent the company from bidding on other contracts.
Deadlines to respect
By refusing to award the new contracts to Duroking, which was the lowest bidder, the City would have delayed the projects by a year, explained to the municipal council the president of the executive committee, Émilie Thuillier.
It was also necessary to respect the rules surrounding the evaluation of the performance of entrepreneurs, she stressed. This evaluation can only be made after the end of the work, and must be sent within the following 60 days to the contractor, who then has 30 days to respond.
“We too would have liked to proceed more quickly, but we had to respect the deadlines provided for by law,” noted Mme Thuillier.
She also argued that the upcoming work is not of the same nature as that of Grand Trunk Street, which caused so many problems.
The two contracts awarded to Duroking, approved Monday by the municipal council, concern underground pipe work and road repairs on Notre-Dame Street in Pointe-aux-Trembles, an expenditure of 57 million, and a construction site at intersection of Maurice-Duplessis and Albert-Hudon boulevards, in Montreal North, which will cost 43 million.
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