A company is suing the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) for $6.3 million, blaming the carrier and its professionals for the nearly two-year delay in work on the new Crémazie transport center, which was completed in 2022.
“The STM stakeholders and its professionals had not measured the extent of the preparatory work to be carried out while the STM’s activities remained in operation. […] The numerous delays in the execution of the preparatory work had the effect of delaying the demolition of the structure of the building,” writes lawyer Me Keven Laverdière, who represents Lambert Somec inc., in a lawsuit filed last week at the courthouse.
Begun in the summer of 2017, work on the new Crémazie complex replaces the former factory of the same name built in 1948 at the corner of Crémazie and Saint-Laurent boulevards. It has been designed to take into account “future needs related to new hybrid and electric bus technologies”, with the aim of having “the flexibility to adapt production methods to best industry practices”.
However, this project ultimately “suffered delays at all phases” due to poor planning, according to the subcontractor who built it.
From the outset, Somec inc., Magil Construction’s subcontractor, which had obtained the initial contract with the STM, said it had been “forced to work in very restricted spaces, to break up its work and to carry out many mobilizations and demobilizations”.
Result: the first preliminary works were already more than 100 days late. Then, further delays were incurred in the construction of a temporary wall, which was to be built in order to isolate the areas occupied by the STM. It is that the “slab under the wall to be built was crumbling and therefore could not support said wall”, says Me Laverdière in the lawsuit.
Overall, Somec inc. claims to have “had to deal with a completely distorted project, which had significant consequences” throughout the process. At the time of bidding, the group claims that it had estimated the number of labor hours at 35,920. In fact, “the actual hours worked were rather 97,851”.
By calculating an average hourly rate of approximately $74.60, Somec inc. is claiming the sum of $4.1 million for overtime worked during phase 1 of the work.
In total, the amount claimed by Somec inc. is 6.3 million. It targets the STM, but also its insurer Intact Assurance and Magil Construction.
Until the payment of this sum, the lawyers of the company specializing in mechanics affirm that the Crémazie complex will be subject to “a legal mortgage of the construction”, a legal tool allowing roughly speaking to guarantee the payment of one of the stakeholders. having contributed to the construction or renovation of a building.
Called to react, the STM first acknowledged by email that its construction site had “experienced certain delays compared to the initial schedule”.
Its spokesperson Justine Lord-Dufour recalls, however, that a “gradual relocation strategy started early in the project allowed the repatriation of activities and its users, thus limiting the impacts of delays”.
“By the end of 2022, the building was fully operational. Some residual work and the correction of deficiencies remain to [conclude] and will be done in 2023. These adjustments in no way affect the activities of the STM, ”assures Ms. Lord-Dufour in this regard.
For the rest, the transport company says it will not comment further on the file, as it is “judicialized”. “As with all disputes or litigation, the STM will deal diligently and in good faith with the parties concerned, all with a view to sound management of the public funds entrusted to it”, nevertheless concludes the spokesperson.
