Yeah, about that bridge and my tax dollars.
I live in the woods west of Halifax, pretty much halfway between two 'big' communities with access roads to the main highway going down the south shore. They decided to put in a 3rd highway access that comes down in my area, to speed up access for emergency vehicles and whatever because our area didn't meet some provincial emergency access standard.
The government put out a tender, a construction company bid on it with a set of drawings, the government approved it and they started constructing the thing in fall 2014. They tore down a couple houses and relocated a 3rd, built a roundabout around the corner from me, built a half kilometre long road to the highway, and built an overpass over the main highway. This was all finished early 2016, and the highway was about to open until someone realized that you can't just have the local "rails to trails" pedestrian trail just come up on each side of a busy access road. The plans the contractor submitted didn't even show the trail, let alone have a crosswalk or bridge for it, and provincial standards require a bridge for the type of trail and type of road.
So this started a battle between the province and the contractor. The plans the contractor submitted didn't meet provincial specs, but the government approved them anyway, both sides blamed the other and half a year later, the province eventually ruled against itself in court, even paying the legal fees of the contractor. They tendered out a contract to build a bridge, which just got finished for less than the price of the court costs.
The highway access still isn't fuckin' open.
