The City of Guelph is looking for another company to finish the police headquarters renovation project after it announced on Tuesday that it has ended the general contractor’s involvement.
The work, which got underway in April 2016, was supposed to be completed last spring, but the latest report from city hall states it’s likely over its $34.1 million budget with a few more months of construction left to go.
Deputy CAO Kealy Dedman said the general contractor has been found in default of the contract due to deficiencies with the work.
“The deficiencies relate primarily to additions which were not built to contract standards and have not yet been corrected,” she said in a phone interview.
The city’s contract administration for the project advised the city about deficiency concerns earlier this month, and in a statement, the city said it has had to “make difficult decisions in the interest of moving the project forward.”
The city will work with the project’s bonding agent to bring in new project management to complete the remaining work and correct outstanding deficiencies.
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Dedman said the city has fulfilled its deal with the outgoing general contractor.
“We followed our contractual obligations to negotiate with the general contractor, to address the concerns around delays and deficiencies and we weren’t able to resolve to this point so we go to the next stage, which is with the bonding agent,” she said.
A report presented to city council in May stated the project’s spending and committed costs reached the budget at the end of February.
“With the remaining five months of construction, the project will exceed the budget due to the extent of unexpected conditions that are part of renovating an aged building,” the report stated.
It added that staff is working to mitigate costs while ensuring the expected outcome is provided.
But Dedman said right now they don’t know how things will end up until a new contractor is appointed.
“At that point in time, we’ll confirm what still needs to be done and if there are any impacts to the approved budget or the project schedule,” she said. “We’ll be reporting out on that as soon as we have the information.”
The project was funded through property taxes and development fees.
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