Construction has paused on an already delayed seniors affordable housing project in Sarnia while Lambton County says it has taken steps to take over the building site.
Construction has paused on an already delayed seniors affordable housing project in Sarnia while Lambton County says it has taken steps to take over the building site.
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Federal and provincial funding for the 24-apartment addition to Lambton County’s Maxwell Park Place affordable housing site, between Maxwell Street and London Road, was announced in March 2021 and an initial building permit was issued late that year.
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The county opted for modular construction, with factory-built units shipped to Sarnia to be placed on a foundation, hoping to speed construction. But foundation work paused in 2022 when unexpected organic material was found in the soil.
More delays followed after the discovery of buried water and power lines not on the original plans, weather and supply chain issues and labor shortages, and foundation design changes.
Foundation work resumed after an updated building permit was issued in late 2023, but Warden Kevin Marriott said construction has been paused again since “for a couple of months.”
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“It’s a problem with the contractor,” he said. “It’s involved in a legal action now. . . (and) “everything’s on hold until this is revolved.”
It isn’t known how long that can take, Marriott said.
“It is our view that BECC Construction Inc. has not met the terms and conditions of their agreement with the county,” county chief administrator Stephane Thiffeault said by email.
“Despite multiple attempts over a significant period of time to reasonably address our outstanding matters with BECC, the county has now recently taken steps to take over the site and is now looking at resuming construction work through another contractor,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the county has few details to share at this time due to foreseeable litigation between the parties,” Thiffeault added.
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“It’s just what we didn’t need,” Marriott said of the latest delay. “It’s embarrassing, but out of our control.”
The county said this year that 54 project modules, assembled at a Toronto factory, are stored in Sarnia.
The project, originally estimated at $6.1 million, has risen to about $7 million, the county estimated earlier this year. Ontario and Ottawa together have contributed more than $3 million.
“There have been a lot of holdups,” Marriott said. “Some of it was planning, some of it was soil problems, and now this.
“This latest one really came out of nowhere,” he said.
The project “will get finished one way or the other,” Marriott said.
“We’ll end up probably getting somebody to take it from here and go forward once we go through the legal part of it,” he said.
“The company was crowded so we have protection that way,” Marriott said.
“It’s just very unfortunate. . . (and) so disappointing,” he said.
BECC Construction did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maxwell Park Place is already home to a 57-unit affordable seniors apartment that opened in 2011 on the original site of the Marshall Gowland Manor long-term care home.
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