King Street underpass at the transit hub

[Canard]

570 News reported on the radio this morning that GrandLink says that in 2 weeks the Dome will be complete. Covering should start this week.

[Andy]

Anyone know how long will it take them to dismantle the Dome? Or are they planning to keep it up until the underpass is finished?

[Canard]

It would make for quite the Tah-Dah! if they could leave it up, then rig the canopy with some kind of quick release (and some fireworks)

[jwilliamson]

Is the "dome" actually going to be a dome? It's looking more like a vault so far.

[Canard]

I don't think anyone knows for sure.

[white_brian]

Grandlink should have had Ringling Bros come and set it up, they would have had the whole 19km covered by now....

[Canard]

More like Cirque!

CTV Kitchener ran a piece about it yesterday. Schmidt addressed the concerns how people keep saying it's stupid since the winter is so warm. CTV again played up the doom and gloom of "who will pay".

Duh - we do, no matter what. And my boss pays me to work. And people pay him for stuff. It's all a big cycle - who cares? Let's build this!

[DHLawrence]

Sure, it's warm now. And then it's cold. And then it's warm. And then it's cold. Construction needs consistent temperatures, or they'd be doing it year round.

[Canard]

People in general are just never happy and need something to bitch about. The news is sort of the catalyst for that.

I didn't get by yesterday; any sign of tarp/covering going up yet?

[clasher]

I didn't see one when I rode by yesterday morning.

I think keeping the area a constant temperature for the rest of winter will be a boon regardless of what the weather is doing outside.

[MidTowner]

CTV again played up the doom and gloom of "who will pay".

Duh - we do, no matter what. And my boss pays me to work. And people pay him for stuff. It's all a big cycle - who cares? Let's build this!

I’m curious about the actual answer to the question of who will pay for this. I wonder about the process to attribute responsibility for the construction delay, and how to apportion the costs of this dome. It seemed like the municipal government was suggesting that it would not be paying since the delay hadn’t been caused by them. But it seemed like they weren’t sure, which is strange- it shouldn’t be too hard to find the part of the contract about delays and the costs of mitigating them if they happen.

[nms]

The Record article from January 8 isn't particularly clear.  For instance, from the article, "Costs are estimated to be anywhere between $1 million and $2 million, Galloway said, and will be taken from the Region of Waterloo's contingency for the project."  Does that mean that the Region's share of the dome cost could be between $1 million and $2 million, or some fraction of that?  My bet is that some lawyer time will be spent parsing the document, with each party proposing that the other should pay for the overwhelming majority of the cost.  

Has anyone seen figures on how much of the $10 million contingency has already been spent by the Region?

[Pheidippides]

Has anyone seen figures on how much of the $10 million contingency has already been spent by the Region?

As of December 31, 2014, $0.
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/region...df#page=43

[nms]

Thanks. It will be interesting to see if this number changes if a similar update is given circa April. It will also be interesting to know what kind of costs are mutually accepted as "contingency" by Grandlinq and the Region.

[SammyOES]

I’m curious about the actual answer to the question of who will pay for this. I wonder about the process to attribute responsibility for the construction delay, and how to apportion the costs of this dome. It seemed like the municipal government was suggesting that it would not be paying since the delay hadn’t been caused by them. But it seemed like they weren’t sure, which is strange- it shouldn’t be too hard to find the part of the contract about delays and the costs of mitigating them if they happen.

Any contract job I've worked on has always had unanticipated costs/delays/problems that weren't explicitly covered in the contract. It's hard to cover every possible scenario, so usually there's some sort of process for figuring out who covers what in these types of areas.

I don't know many details about this case, but I suspect its not cut and dry who's responsible. Some delays are probably the Region's problem, some are probably Grandlinq, and some are probably unclear/shared. So if the dome is in response to delays - the cost is probably born by both sides and the exact amount is probably still to be settled.