Is the city getting value for money on roads contracts?

“I've been told there are still some outstanding issues on projects that are more than two years old, where there shouldn't be, and that these contractors are still doing work for the city,” Cormier said. “I'm trying to confirm or deny what I'm being told, with respect to the level of deficiencies that may be outstanding.”

He cited the example of recent curb and sidewalk work completed on John Street in Sudbury that had to be redone this year.

“Is that a report we can get easily?” Cormier asked. “Or does it require a motion of council?”

Tony Cecutti, the city's general manager of infrastructure, said the city has a two-year warranty on construction projects, and it's common for inspectors to find problems with the work before the warranty expires. Contractors don't get the full amount owing to them until those problems are rectified.

“It's not uncommon, at the end of that two-year warranty, to have a list you review with the contractor, and sometimes there's disputes about that,” Cecutti said. “But we're certainly very diligent in ensuring the work meets the city's expectations.”

But Cormier said he wanted to find out out whether there are more problems with certain contractors than others.

“What I would be interested in looking at is seeing whether there's a pattern with any construction company that we use,” he said. “John Street was done less than two years ago, and after the first winter, every curb and every sidewalk had to be redone. I'm not saying that cost us money or not. I don't know. But it says a heck of a lot … about the quality of the work.

“And that same contractor is doing a lot of work for the city. We have heard this for years. So that's the kind of data I'm interested in us getting as a council.”

Cecutti said problems on John Street were related to the late-season start to the work, and the early onset of winter.

“Certainly there was some concrete deficiencies – it wasn't the full extent of every single sidewalk and every single curb, but there was an extensive amount,” he said. “It was tendered late and, because of the weather, just naturally it turned out that there was more deficiencies found in the spring than you'd normally see – because of when the work was done.

“But that's a good example of where we insisted that all the concrete (issues) was addressed before we laid down the final asphalt. But we're quite happy with (the remedial) work that was done – at the contractor's expense and cost. The city wasn't out of pocket to address that. So the system worked quite well … In the end, (contractors) are judged by the final product. That's what we pay for.”

There focus of late, Cecutti said, is getting contractors to completely finish the job.

“The lingering things, like sod restoration and driveways that are a nagging headache, we recognize that (and) that's been one of our areas of focus,” he said. “We believe that this new approach … is helping in that regard.”

Mayor Brian Bigger said what Cormier was interested in was a report on projects that still had deficiencies after the two-year warranty period expired.

“You'd like to see a report of outstanding deficiencies to identify what has been accepted or not accepted,” Bigger said.

“Yes – the outstanding items,” Cormier replied.

Cecutti said a report is prepared annually for the operations committee “on the status of our ongoing construction projects.

“Certainly it doesn't go into a lot of detail, it's general in nature,” he said. “Perhaps we could go from there if it's not adequate.”