Brant pier agreement reached

(Updated) A huge sigh of relief at City Hall in Burlington today. The city has finally closed the book on its lawsuit over the troubled Brant Street Pier.

This pier project first started eight years ago in 2006 and now the city can say it’s done, built and paid for, and there’s no longer a multi-million-dollar lawsuit hanging over it.

Burlington mayor Rick Goldring was relieved as the city was finally able to say the whole Brant Street Pier project is finished.

It follows a difficult start for the pier — designed to attract more people to the city’s waterfront — at an original cost of $6 million.

Early in the construction, a crane collapsed, then there was a problem with steel in the pier. New companies were brought in to finish it.

When the pier was finally completed last year the final cost was put at 14.4 million dollars. The city launched a lawsuit against original companies. That lawsuit, involving nine parties, has now been settled out of court.

Some of the parties have paid into a fund from which the city will receive $2 million, more than enough to pay its legal fees.

“The settlement amount will more than compensate the city for its costs relative to defending the city’s interests,” said Pat Moyle, a manager for the city of Burlington.

Details of the out of court settlement are not being released.

City Councillor Marianne Meed-Ward says she wants them to come out so that people can know whether justice was done.

“Until we know the details of who is paying and who is receiving we’re not really going to have a true understanding of what happened here,” said Meed-Ward.

The city is getting $2 million from the out-of-court settlement, and that will cover legal fees. But Burlington was suing for $10 million to cover the cost overrun. There is no mention of that in the settlement. Councillor Meed-Ward says that leaves taxpayers on the hook for the $8 million this project went over budget.