Four aldermen keen on blocking a designer pedestrian bridge across the Bow River have failed at an attempt to spike the city’s $2.5 million contract with Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Aldermen Andre Chabot, Joe Connelly, Ric McIver and Diane Colley-Urquhart brought a motion to the January 12 council meeting asking for a halt of “current contract negotiations” so the design contract could be put to tender, arguing the province’s Municipality Sustainable Initiative (MSI) guidelines were broken when the city made a deal with Calatrava rather than holding an open competition. (The bridge is being paid for with MSI money from the province.) However, the motion was voted down. “I’m offended that administration would do that — to sole-source a contract,” says Colley-Urquhart.
The previous week, Colley-Urquhart sent an e-mail to Calatrava asking him to refuse the city’s contract. “Your beautiful extravagant bridges exceed what we can afford and wouldn’t be worth your while,” she wrote. Colley-Urquhart says she never heard back from Calatrava.
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