Valérie Plante said she was unhappy with the design problems of the Marquise de la Plaza St-Hubert on Tuesday, whose snow and ice fall can pose a mortal danger to passers-by.
The brand new marquee, which should not require any snow removal, according to the Plante administration, will ultimately have to be cleared by hand in each storm in order to avoid a disaster. It will cost Montreal taxpayers thousands of dollars a year.
“I’m not happy, it’s obvious,” said M.me Plante, Tuesday, on the sidelines of a conference in front of the East Montreal Chamber of Commerce (CCEM). “I’m not putting aside the Marchioness as such, but I’m not happy that we end up with a problem that we had named as a concern. ”
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
The mayoress did not indicate whether the City of Montreal intended to take legal action against the designers of the marquee. She explained that her officials would reconstruct the history of exchanges with the firms involved in order to check the thread of events.
Mme Plante stressed that she did not regret having carried out the Plaza St-Hubert revitalization project, including the installation of a new awning. She touted her light and modern appearance.
Firms are passing the buck
Meanwhile, the companies involved in the Plaza St-Hubert revitalization work are passing the buck.
The firms Latéral and Chevalier Morales argued in a statement that they had been involved in the early stages of the design of the marquise, but that they were not signing the final drawings.
“We were not part of the team of professionals who designed the plans and specifications for the realization of the awning of the Plaza St-Hubert”, indicated the two teams.
“The mandate of our team […] was limited to the development of a conceptual study, which included the establishment of a vision and general principles, the production of schematic plans and the development of three-dimensional illustrations, the statement continued. The current awning, the one that was designed and built, differs significantly from that represented in our conceptual study, especially with regard to the slopes of the deck. ”
The plans and specifications included in the call for tenders aimed at finding the constructor of the awning are signed by the firms Régis Côté et associés and Stantec.
Last week, the latter seemed to blame Lateral and Chevalier Morales: by email, Stantec said that he had worked “from the conceptual design study, carried out prior to our mandate and based on the parameters determined by the project stakeholders ”.