Exceptionally heavy rain and high snow pack are to blame for a $9.3-million cost overrun and year-long delay in the completion of the Red Rock weigh scale, according to transportation ministry officials.
The facility, which was officially opened Saturday, was supposed to be completed last fall after JJM Construction Ltd. was awarded a contract in May 2008 and began work a month later.
But during July and August 2008, extreme rainfall saturated the soils and rendered them unusable and the extreme snow pack and spring freshet of 2009 continued to saturate the soils, ministry spokesman Jeff Knight said in an e-mail.
"August 2008 saw three times the average rainfall, 148 millimetres, the following winter had snow packs over 150 per cent of normal and above average rainfall also fell in spring 2009, which kept the soils unworkable until well into the summer of 2009," he said.
"As a result, the saturated soils were hauled away and usable soils were trucked into the site. In typical weather those soils would have been used on site and would have required much less handling and hauling."
In all, 600,000 cubic metres was taken out and the average dump truck carries eight cubic metres and most of the extra cost was in the form of payment to JJM which was originally awarded a $19-million contract to carry out the construction.
The work also included four-laning five kilometres of Highway 16 South.
Shanna Mason, the ministry's executive director of highway operations, said the soil at the site was moved to nearby agricultural sites and the new material trucked in from Kale pit. "They were running their trucks out to the pit, running their trucks in, plus moving the material off the site and that really is what drove the increased costs and the delays," she said.
Transportation minister Shirley Bond said the delay and higher cost was disappointing but noted the vast majority of the ministry's projects finish on time and on budget and expects cost savings from other projects will cover the shortfall.
"It's an unfortunate circumstance," she said.
The provincial government announced its intention to build the facility in March 2005 to act as the replacement for the one at the entrance to the B.C. Rail Industrial Site, which has long been a thorn in the side of truckers who've complained about the cumbersome access to the site.
Following a consultation process, the location, about a kilometre south of Red Rock between Red Rock Road and Anderson Road, was chosen in December of the same year.
But then transportation minister Kevin Falcon held off on pursing the work, part of the much larger Cariboo Connector effort to double the amount of four-laned road on Highway 97 between Cache Creek and Prince George, until federal government funding was secured.
In late-January 2008, Ottawa agreed to allocate up to $11.3 million and four months later the contract was awarded. JJM is a Delta-based company but it was stressed during the grand opening that 80 per cent of the 90 people who worked on the site are from the Prince George area.
