The contractor building the Johnson Street bridge says another $7.9 million and five and a half months is needed to complete the project.

Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin bluntly said the city has a fixed-price contract and has no plans to pay more.

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“From my perspective, we’ve included a number of safeguards that are part of this project to protect our citizens and we’re confident the project will be completed on budget. We have a fixed-price contract,” he said Monday.

PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. has submitted a “change order” seeking more money and time, says a staff report to be considered by councillors Thursday.

Change orders are the typical mechanism for contractors to present potential changes, according to the staff report. They are not unusual and are to be expected, the report says.

PCL presented the change order, which it says was necessitated because of delays in design delivery, on March 17.

“The change order focuses on two major issues: design delivery and scope growth related to material increases. It should be noted that designs are due at specific dates,” says the staff report. It says with the exception of structural steel the contract specifies material quantity is the contractor’s risk.

City staff say the bridge replacement remains within the project budget of $92.8 million. The contingency is $2.8 million. They say they are confident the project can be completed on time and on budget.

Staff have asked MMM Group, its lead consultant managing the project, to review the change order and report back to the city “on the merits, if any, of PCL’s request.”

Ross Crockford, a director with the watchdog group johnsonstreetbridge.org, wondered whether there are problems stemming from the unique nature of the new bridge design.

“What I want to know and what councillors need to know is does this stem from the fact that we’re building something that has no prototype or precedent?” Crockford said.

“If that’s the case and this is due to a basic conceptual problem with the design, that was sold to people in the referendum [that approved the bridge], it’s not going to end at $7.9 million,” he said.

Crockford also wondered about asking MMM to arbitrate PCL’s request.

“If there are problems with the design, as PCL apparently suggests, is MMM going to fully evaluate and disclose them, when they’re the same company that’s been pushing the design for the past five years?” Crockford said.

Fortin said information about the change order was included in the quarterly bridge update in the interests of transparency.

“I’ll be transparent back. We have a fixed price contract. Our expectation is that the project will be completed on budget,” Fortin said.

City staff say design of the bridge is substantially complete and expected to be finalized by next month. At the time of the contract award the project design was “60 per cent complete, sufficient for the contractor to begin construction.”

A spokesperson for PCL could not be reached for comment.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com