Interpaving has history of public safety problems on job sites

The company at the centre of a investigation into a construction site death in downtown Sudbury last week is no stranger to safety problems and complaints from the public.

The Elgin Street work site is one of several in the last year whereInterpavingLimited has been told to do a better job protecting pedestrians and passing cars.

The Ministry of Labour did 18 inspections ofInterpavingjob sites in northern Ontario in the last year andissued 23 orders, almost all of them pertaining to the safety of construction sites.

They include:

• October 15, 2014: six orders issued atTimminsSquare asphalt project, including the installationof fencing "between project and pedestrian walkways for public protection" and correcting "inadequate traffic control."
• October 21, 2014: two orders issued following a complaint about work on Highway 17 nearVerner, including "requirement for traffic protection plan."
• June 19, 2015: Inspection of work on Algonquin Boulevard inTimminsleads to three orders, including"adequatesignageto protect workers" and the writing of a "traffic protection plan."
• July 16, 2015:Three orders issued for resurfacing job at Junction Road and Main Street in Smooth Rock Falls. Inspectors find "inadequate traffic control measures provided to workers."

Interpaving was founded in 1972 in Sudbury and has several related businesses, including Interconcrete and ARGdevco, the development wing that's behind the Silver Hills commercial big box complex in New Sudbury, as well as a proposed residential subdivision next door and real estate projects in Timmins and North Bay.

Interpavingdoes work all over the province, as well as for the province. Two days after the woman was crushed on Elgin Street, it was announced that the company has won a $10 million contract to re-pave Highway 144 between Onaping and Cartier.

Interpaving is also one of the go-to contractors for the City of Greater Sudbury.Just this year, it has been awarded about$9 million dollars in city contracts.

Here's how the city's interim chief administrative officer KevinFowkedescribed the company earlier this week:

"They've been a long-standing contractor for the city. I wouldn't say that we've had safety issues with them before."

But there is a long history of complaints from the public about Interpaving's work,many of them dealing with safety,including a west end neighbourhood showered with stones last year during blasting on Big Nickel Road.

In 2013, Southview Drive resident Deborah Knuff called the city several times to complain about the work Interpaving was doing on her street, including blocking her driveway andleaving a large hole without barriers to stop cars or pedestrians from falling in.

"Clearly the company has a history of this, because the concerns have been reported to the city and I know they log the calls and I know they respond, because they responded when I called," said Knuff.

There have also been complaints about the quality of the work Interpaving does.This spring, city councillor Fern Cormier spoke out about a paving job on John Street in his ward that had to be re-done.

"It says a heck of a lot about the quality of the work. And that same contractor is doing a lot of work for the city. And we have heard this for years," he said at a city council meeting.

Interpaving declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing investigation by the Ministry of Labour, as well as its own internal investigation. A letter sent to CBC does say that Interpaving takes health and safety on its work sites "very seriously."