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City manager Kent Kirkpatrick said he’s taken action, as directed by the finance committee, to discipline staff but most fault rests with the firm. “ In my view, the primary responsibility for the failure to date on this project was the fact that the design engineers designed a bridge that, in the end, couldn’t be built,” Kirkpatrick told reporters. 

Within the city’s infrastructure services department, Kirkpatrick said there were already changes being made to project handling so that if a project’s schedule or budget starts to go wrong, there is better communication. 

In comparison with past legal claims, Kirkpatrick said, the lawsuit against the company is significant. “ In terms of dollar value, it’s not as large as others,” he said. “ But it’s significant given, if you think about it in terms of the scale of what the project actually was, which is a very important piece of infrastructure but a small pedestrian bridge.” 

He said there are a number of ongoing lawsuits among bridge contractors, some of which the city has also been named in. 

Council directed city solicitor Rick O’Connor in December to seek recovery from Genivar and any other party for the additional costs associated with the construction delays and changes to the design of the bridge. 

The city’s claims have not been tested in court.  Isabelle Adjahi, WSPs director of communications, said Tuesday that the company would not be commenting on the city’s claims. 

Watson told reporters that outside lawyers will be handling the case because they have the expertise necessary for the claim.  He said it’s possible the city will seek more than the $4.6 million announced Tuesday, including court costs. 

“This has the potential to be an expensive undertaking and it shouldn’t be the taxpayers that foot the bill for Genivar’s mistakes,” Watson said. 

The bridge is expected to be finished by the end of 2014 at the latest, Watson said.  Construction was halted last fall but began again in April with engineering firm Delcan, which was brought in after the city fired Genivar. 

River ward Coun.  Maria McRae said she hopes the city will continue aggressively pursuing legal action in the bridge case, “including squeezing out every last cent of costs.” 

The issue has been on her radar since she first saw “wretched concrete” falling from the bridge, she said.  Concrete having to be torn down was one of the first issues that surfaced. 

McRae said at finance committee that the situation hasn’t just embarrassed the city and disappointed the community. “ It’s caused reputational risk that we can’t build a bridge over four lanes of traffic in the time frame we’re supposed to.”