The first day of the appeal regarding the Capital Pointe construction site began on Tuesday with the lawyer for the developer proposing that rather than the excavation site be filled, that the site should continue to be monitored.
The hearing between the City of Regina and the Capital Pointe developer, Westgate Properties Ltd. was came about after the city issued an order on April 3 for the developer to fill the excavation. It will be heard by the Saskatchewan Building and Accessibility Standards Board.
Neil Abbott, the lawyer for Westgate Properties Ldt. and Christine Clifford, the lawyer for the City of Regina agreed at the beginning of the morning that the hearing would focus solely on the city’s claim that the site was not safe, and would not delve into other issues surrounding the project, such as when construction on the project would be completed.
According to the city, temporary shoring of the excavation that was constructed by Westgate was only meant to last the winter, and became unsafe as of the end of March. The former engineer of record on the project had issued an order that if the shoring was not updated, the site should be filled.
In his opening statement, Abbott disputed the claim that the site is unsafe, but asked that if the board finds in the city’s favour, that the board modify the order and prevent the site from being backfilled. Abbott argued that continued monitoring should be sufficient.
Following the opening statements, the Westgate team called an expert witness, an engineer named Kai-Sing Hui. Hui’s resume includes being the engineer of record for the Regina Bypass project, and his firm has been retained as the new engineer of record on the project for the next six months..
Hui testified that the site is currently safe and stable, and that he found the temporary shoring is safe until December 8 of this year on the condition that monitoring of the site continues.
Hui said that updates should be made to the shoring system before the winter, as weather conditions could change the stability of the site.
When questioned by Clifford, he stated that it’s not uncommon for an engineering firm to issue and order for a site to be filled if they are severing ties with the project, saying they could be held liable if there’s an issue. He went on to say that his firm would issue a similar order if at the end of their six month retainer, they are not satisfied that appropriate progress has been made on redesigning the shoring.
The appeal is scheduled to last for three days.
CTV’s Karyn Mulcahy is at the appeal.
