SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The lone Northern sub-contractor on the Deh Cho Bridge project says the corporation in charge of the $165-million project has removed responsibilities for constructing piers from the main contractor, ATCON Construction.

Jack Rowe, co-owner of Rowe's Construction, said the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation intends to enter into an agreement with other companies for the earth and foundation work his company was hired by ATCON to complete.

"As it stands right now, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has decided to pursue other opportunities or other options on this contract," Rowe said Thursday from Hay River.

"We're at a point where we don't know what our involvement is," he said.

ATCON, the primary contractor on the project, was in charge of contracting out the work to other companies. Rowe said the responsibility for the work his company was hired to complete has been taken away from ATCON by the bridge corporation.

"We're still trying to determine what is going on," Rowe said, adding his understanding was the bridge corporation didn't appear to want ATCON to complete the work. "No one is coming to the table quite clearly on it."

When asked about ATCON's apparent loss of control over the contract, Earl Blacklock, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, said he could not comment on the situation, but did not deny hearing about the possible changes.

"We expect the bridge corporation will fulfil it's responsibility to move forward with the bridge by the means they choose to do so," said Blacklock. "It's their responsibility and we're confident with them moving forward with that. We're monitoring the situation closely."

Andrew Gamble, project co-ordinator for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, would not comment on whether or not ATCON has lost overall responsibility for the project, saying "he wasn't yet ready to comment" about possible contracts with other companies to complete the foundation work.

"That's certainly a possibility. I'm not prepared to talk about what we might be looking to do or might be discussing."

When asked about Rowe's comments, Gamble said, "you can report what Jack said."

"We still have a contract with ATCON and that's as far as I'm willing to go right now."

The corporation is completing modifications to the current bridge design, and Gamble said the design issues will likely lead to more delays on the project and possible increases in cost.

"Our best information is that the design changes won't increase fabrication costs, the issue is really whether the delays will increase costs," Gamble said. "We're not looking at big increases."

Last year, construction was delayed by several weeks, in part because Rowe's Construction didn't add a retarder to the cement mix that was being tested for the bridge pier foundations, according to Gamble last September.

Gamble said he would be speculating to give a timeline on when modifications to the bridge designs will be complete but said it will be a few months at the very least.

"It's not all within our control," he said, adding the territorial government will have to review and approve any changes to the design.

"Will it be a fairly simple review? Will there be no issues? Will the design team have to debate some differences? This is something I can't predict right now," said Gamble.

Dorothy Innes, a spokesperson for ATCON in Miramichi, N.B, declined to comment.