The full impact on the Maxwell Park Place expansion project following a recent contractor change is unknown at this point as work continues at the affordable housing site.
The County of Lambton confirmed they recently parted ways with BECC Construction Inc., which is based in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Manager of Housing Services Melisa Johnson said the company has been the contractor on the project "from the beginning."
"As many people are aware, we've had many delays throughout the project. Some of them have been related to soil issues, weather delays, and site servicing, but we have had some other challenges with the contractor," Johnson said. "The county's stance is that construction has not met the terms and conditions of the agreement with the county. So as a result of that, we have ended that relationship and we are looking to take over the project and find another contractor to finish the project for us."
BECC Construction was tasked with the entire project, including the design, foundation work, as well as construction and stacking of the modules.
Further details could not be shared "due to foreseeable litigation regarding this project," said Johnson.
In terms of the next steps, Johnson said a contractor (DiCocco General Contractors) is currently on site performing mitigation work.
"The work that they will be doing is finishing the foundation waterproofing and backfilling, getting everything on site ready so that we can proceed with the stacking of the modules," she said. "The modules are all completed and stored at a secondary location in Sarnia. We do have possession of those so those aren't in jeopardy and we are just looking at securing an experienced contractor to basically take over the project and stack those modules and then outfit the building; enclose it, do all the finishing work needed to receive occupancy."
Johnson said the process to find a new contractor is underway and is being handled by a bonding company.
The project was estimated to cost $7 million but there are now many unknowns regarding the budgetary impact. However, Johnson said the county has some financial protection as the project was bonded.
The impact to the timeline is also unknown at this point.
"Once we have that new contractor selected we will be able to get a formalized timeline," she said. "At this point, I'm hopeful that it'll be not that long, but there's still a lot of unknowns with that."
Johnson said an update will be presented to Lambton County Council when more information becomes available.