The City of Prince George is fighting back against a contractor's claim the municipality has reneged on more than $500,000 worth of unexpected extra work related to the installation of a pair of water mains.
In answer to a notice of claim Progrus Constructors Inc. filed Aug. 25 with B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, the city has filed both a response denying the allegations and a counterclaim seeking damages from the contractor.
Under a pair of separate but overlapping contracts, Kamloops-based Progrus had been hired to install PVC water mains along Chief Lake Road and Irwin Street and at Patricia Boulevard and Ontario Street during the spring and summer of 2021.
While carrying out the work on Chief Lake Road, an excavator struck an existing water main at the intersection with Highway 97 in August and in September a main at Kelly Road "spontaneously ruptured" and flooded and contaminated the nearby Chief Lake Road excavation.
Progrus claims the city is at fault for both incidents, alleging the municipality failed to properly identify the location of the main along Highway 97 North and failed to properly maintain or install the Kelly Road water main.
But in a response and a counterclaim, both filed in late September, the city says Progrus is responsible.
On the break at Highway 97 North, the city says drawings provided to Progrus were for "guidance only and that the location of pre-existing utilities were to be confirmed on site. Progrus' reliance, if any, on drawings provided by CPG to determine the location of existing underground utilities prior to excavation with heavy machinery was unreasonable in the circumstances."
On the flooding from the rupture of the Kelly Road main, the city says the problem centres on a failure by Progrus to keep the site in a "safe and tidy condition" thus allowing groundwater to contaminate the new water main.
Regardless, the city says Progrus would have had to conduct the same amount of bacteriological sampling, testing and disinfection as if the flooding had not occurred.
The city says the work was not completed until 121 days after the scheduled deadline and asserts it is owed $120,750 in liquidated damages "plus other direct costs incurred due the delay, particulars of which are to be proven at trial."
On the second contract - to install PVC watermain at the intersection of Patricia Boulevard and Ontario Street - the city denies it has forced Progrus to carry out some additional tie-in work, causing a delay.
Instead, the city claims Progrus simply failed to complete the work, including paving, by the scheduled Oct. 15, 2021, deadline.
Eventually told Progrus would be unable to complete paving on Patricia Boulevard during the calendar year, the city says it paid a third party $71,210 plus GST to pave the stretch before the asphalt plants had closed for the winter.
The city says it also incurred $26,937.76 to pave Ontario Street and that the paving had to be removed the subsequent spring to complete the installation of the water main.
For each day the project's completion was delayed, the city is seeking $750 plus direct costs incurred. The alleged length of the delay is not specified in the counterclaim.
None of the claims alleged by either party have yet been tested in court.
