Jonathan Huggett recalled a moment in 2014, when he was retained to look into the troubled Johnson Street Bridge replacement project. B次元官网网址淵ou know thereB次元官网网址檚 a problem when you sit everyone down in a room and ask, B次元官网网址楽o, whoB次元官网网址檚 in charge of the project?B次元官网网址� and no one puts up their hand.B次元官网网址�

Huggett was brought on that April when council acknowledged that the project had gone seriously off the rails. Cost overruns were already occurring and the project was behind schedule. The principals of the project were in constant conflict and litigations were already being initiated by those involved.

By September, Huggett was interim project manager, a role later made permanent to allow him to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

When he first arrived on the scene, he found a deeply flawed plan and process and his first order of business was to get people pulling in the same direction.

B次元官网网址淭he first thing to do was to get all the grievances on the table and resolve those so we could move on. Otherwise, we could never have a discussion about the real problems, because the past was always going to get in the way,B次元官网网址� he said.

Issues had developed between builders PCL Constructors Westcoast and MMM Group (now WSP Canada Group), the main consultant on the job.

Huggett noted that the project had been based on a partial design, had no real leadership in place, and that some decisions were made that plagued the project for the next four years.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e been at this for 42 years and IB次元官网网址檝e learned that a good part of the job, 90 per cent, is just common sense and finding a way to allow people to do their jobs,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 always going to be small B次元官网网址減B次元官网网址� politics involved but, really, the key is to be open and transparent and ready to talk to people.

B次元官网网址淲e did things like posting all of our financial transactions on-line. If you post them, it makes a lot of the nonsense conspiracy theories go away and allows people to do their work without having to deal with that stuff.B次元官网网址�

Huggett insisted he was simply the vehicle to allow hundreds of very talented people to do the actual work. He credited the professionalism of the crews working on the bridge as well as some of the staff at city hall for their work on the project.

B次元官网网址淎fter I got here, there was a changeover of a lot of the actors who had been involved at the initial stages, both in the City and the firms involved. It allowed a bit of a clean slate to let us move forward, and that was helpful.B次元官网网址�

As for what the future holds for him once the bridge is completed, Huggett said he never knows what his next project might be; as long as he enjoys what heB次元官网网址檚 doing, heB次元官网网址檒l keep going.

B次元官网网址淏ut this is definitely a project IB次元官网网址檒l remember and IB次元官网网址檒l look back on the finished project with a lot of pride.B次元官网网址�

For a collection of Johnson Street Bridge stories, .