Phase 2B contract controversially awarded to Roche-NCE
With appropriate dissent, debate and controversy among the NCC Board of Directors, the contract for the next phase of the project (Phase 2B, in which the corridor will be selected and the Environmental Assessment completed) has been award to Roche-NCE.
These are the same consultants who ran the first phase of the project in which Kettle Island was selected as ‘the technically preferred corridor’, only to be rejected by the project stakeholders on the basis that the analysis was incomplete and failed to take into consideration some of their primary objectives.
So after a brief reprieve during Phase 2A, where Aecom-Delcan took the lead, the same team with the same project manager that tried to condemn the Kettle Island corridor in Phase 1 is back in charge.
As Kelly Egan from the Ottawa Citizen points out, this may not be the best way to spend our taxpayer money.
Wednesday morning, the board of the National Capital Commission rejected a proposed $4.5-million contract to further study the next bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau.
After lunch, the board voted to reconsider the motion, then agreed to award the contract to consultants Roche-NCE Joint Venture, as was originally proposed, only hours earlier.
So Mister Screwy was in the building. This is how taxpayer millions are handled?
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Kelly+Egan+board+worth+studying/4578874/story.html#ixzz1IxDcxpzT
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April 10th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
I think it is clear that the mandate for the consultants should not be to look for a “corridor” but to seek the most efficient and environmentally friendly method of routing traffic around Ottawa. This should include. Consideration of the ring road as well as subways and monorail etc.
Many people have much to gain and lose in this process for generations to come.
April 12th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
At the outset, I have to declare a conflict of interest in this issue as I’m a resident of the area. However, a an accountability activist, I have to say that this whole process has lacked the basic requirements for accountability. There has been little transparency, with the shaping of the project conducted largely behind doors and without true participation from Ottawa communities. Backroom deals are rumoured to have occurred. As to who benefits, the benefit for downtown truck traffic has been debunked. So who then remains? With a $700 million project at stake, construction companies can’t help but want this to proceed.
With all communities in Ottawa now opposed to a bridge, it is shameful that this process is forging on in the way it is. Frankly, it’s undemocratic.