A brief visit to Toronto allows me to examine two new sub-surface stations on the Spadina line extension.
During the past few years, I have been engaged as reviewer and expert witness on the multi-disciplinary development of these stations as part of long-drawn-out contractual disagreements between the various parties to the projects. My role in each case is to independently examine what exists by way of contemporaneous documentation and provide opinion on the most likely source of and responsibility for the factors that underlie the many disagreements and their various elements.
My propositions have addressed the contractual arrangements, the delivery methods employed by each party at each stage of the design and construction, the implications of requirements change and associated cost control, the appropriateness of budget and contingency, the reasonable standard of technical and managerial care applied, and of course to review and comment on the propositions of other experts on the effectiveness of the teams involved.
During the past few years, I have been engaged as reviewer and expert witness on the multi-disciplinary development of these stations as part of long-drawn-out contractual disagreements between the various parties to the projects. My role in each case is to independently examine what exists by way of contemporaneous documentation and provide opinion on the most likely source of and responsibility for the factors that underlie the many disagreements and their various elements.
My propositions have addressed the contractual arrangements, the delivery methods employed by each party at each stage of the design and construction, the implications of requirements change and associated cost control, the appropriateness of budget and contingency, the reasonable standard of technical and managerial care applied, and of course to review and comment on the propositions of other experts on the effectiveness of the teams involved.
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Until now a largely paper exercise by reason of the limitations imposed by the pandemic, my visit allowed me to see for myself the results of the labours of all parties.
The documentation and argument are of a scale and complexity that only infrastructure projects can generate and, from reading the papers and the other opinions, you might expect Armageddon at each location. As such disagreements are not uncommon in major infrastructure projects, I had considerable interest in seeing the true physical and operational consequences, and in understanding just how the multitude of major and minor arguments affect the finished product in its role as a functioning transport facility.
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Yes, I could nit-pick, but I was not there to snag the workmanship. What I found are facilities that work effectively, that are comfortable enough to navigate, that seem safe and secure, and each with a degree of engineering and architectural merit - be the latter to my taste or not.
However, in passing through Toronto I also experienced the unerring traffic problems in the wider metropolis, and a public transport system that can barely dent the need despite its new extensions. While the two cases are endlessly interesting from a professional, theoretical and future advisory standpoint, I do wonder why these Spadina debates continue through the courts, absorbing precious time and funding resources that can evidently be put to much better practical use in addressing the pressing connectivity and environmental needs of this fine city.
The documentation and argument are of a scale and complexity that only infrastructure projects can generate and, from reading the papers and the other opinions, you might expect Armageddon at each location. As such disagreements are not uncommon in major infrastructure projects, I had considerable interest in seeing the true physical and operational consequences, and in understanding just how the multitude of major and minor arguments affect the finished product in its role as a functioning transport facility.
• • •
Yes, I could nit-pick, but I was not there to snag the workmanship. What I found are facilities that work effectively, that are comfortable enough to navigate, that seem safe and secure, and each with a degree of engineering and architectural merit - be the latter to my taste or not.
However, in passing through Toronto I also experienced the unerring traffic problems in the wider metropolis, and a public transport system that can barely dent the need despite its new extensions. While the two cases are endlessly interesting from a professional, theoretical and future advisory standpoint, I do wonder why these Spadina debates continue through the courts, absorbing precious time and funding resources that can evidently be put to much better practical use in addressing the pressing connectivity and environmental needs of this fine city.
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