Latest News

April 21, 2021

POINT OF CONTACT
John Stephenson, P.Eng
JStephenson@regionofwaterloo.ca

OPSS.MUNI 909 (Prestressed Concrete – Precast Members) was updated in 2019 following several months of deliberations over several meetings.  As part of the deliberations, the Committee solicited comments from various sources, including the MTO materials section and pre-cast industry representatives.

The OPS MUNI Structures Committee strived to create OPSS.MUNI 909 in a manner that would provide high-quality pre-cast prestressed elements while ensuring that the parameters for manufacture would be achievable to experienced pre-casters.

The Committee recently received feedback from a consultant indicating that they had a major project with roughly 1800 linear metres of precast girders, but had difficulties in attracting multiple competitive bids and those who did bid had difficulties in getting quoted from pre-casters.  Apparently, only one supplier was willing to quote.  We are hearing that this situation may be widespread.

Given the potential impact on municipalities, the Committee is considering re-opening OPSS.MUNI 909.  In conjunction with this, we would like to hear from as many Ontario municipalities (and their consultants and local contactors) as possible, so that we can gauge how widespread the problem is and what the impacts on bidding and pricing have been.

Based on this, we are reaching out to MEA to request that MEA ask its members for any feedback regarding recent experience with tenders involving pre-cast concrete girders.

POINT OF CONTACT
John Stephenson, P.Eng
JStephenson@regionofwaterloo.ca