12 August 2010

Victoria Councillors Vote to Replace Johnson Street Bridge

Looking east through the Blue Bridge at the VIA Rail station in Victoria.

Victoria Vancouver Island British Columbia - Victoria councillors have once again voted to replace, rather than refurbish, the 86-year-old Johnson Street Bridge.
 
"Now is the time to put the political swords down, and aside, and say let us come together as a community, because fundamentally we need to fix this bridge," said Mayor Dean Fortin.
 
The city plans a referendum 20 Nov 2010 to get voter permission to borrow for the $77-million project.
 
 

An artist's impression of one of the proposed designs for a new bridge.
 
 
The decision to replace the bridge follows weeks of open houses, tours, and surveys, including an Ipsos Reid telephone survey that found 64 percent of residents and 68 percent of businesses preferred replacement over the rehabilitation option, estimated to cost $80 million.
 
As well, some 2,600 residents filled out householder surveys in which support for replacement ran about three to one.
 
Only Coun. Geoff Young voted against replacement, arguing that a third, less expensive option should be considered.
 
"People are very concerned about cost. That came through from all of the responses, the polling, and the letters," Young said later. "I think we have to say:  What is the least work we can responsibly and reasonably do to keep this bridge operating for another few decades?"
 
Ross Crockford, a director of the group johnsonstreetbridge.org, which led last year's counter-petition campaign against borrowing for bridge replacement, was not surprised by the council vote.
 
"Even I didn't agree with the rehabilitation option the way it was put forward, so I'm not surprised the majority of people did not," Crockford said.
 
Crockford maintains the refurbishment cost was inflated dramatically because council demanded that its amenities mirror those provided by a new bridge. For example, the refurbished bridge would have to have all new electrical and mechanical systems, would be expected to last another 100 years, and would need to be seismically upgraded to withstand an 8.5-magnitude earthquake.
 
Consultants said the existing bridge would have to be dismantled to do the work, which would mean closing it for a year, resulting in a loss of $13 million in economic activity to downtown.
 
"What does disappoint me is that I think there are a lot of really crucial questions that the council thinks that they've asked which they really haven't," Crockford said. "They have not really grilled the engineers as to why the same team was saying that this was going to be $35 million back last November, and now we're talking $80 million to rehabilitate the bridge."
 
But Fortin rejected the notion of looking at other options.
 
"You get into paralysis by analysis," he said. "We've had nine different engineering [studies], three major engineering groups, MMM, Stantec, and Delcan, come forward and say:  Here's your options. Here's the prices. We actually spent an extra $50,000 having a peer review so there was confidence in those."
 
Under provincial legislation, the city must seek authority through a referendum to borrow the $49.2 million it needs for the $77-million project. The balance will come from a $21-million federal grant and $6.8 million through consolidating other planned capital works into the bridge project and land sale funds.
 
The replacement cost does not include bringing the E&N Rail line across. That component was eliminated to shave off about $12 million. The city is looking for funding from other sources, such as the Capital Regional District, the province, and the federal government, to pay for a rail crossing.
 
"We will continue to go out and work for the next six months to try to find all that money. We have up until the end of December to actually include rail into the construction," Fortin said.
 
Besides Fortin, councillors Pam Madoff, Chris Coleman, Charlayne Thornton-Joe, John Luton, Philippe Lucas, Lynn Hunter, and Sonya Chandler voted in favour of replacement.
 
Council voted by the same eight-to-one margin in April 2009 to replace the bridge, but that was shot down in January after johnsonstreetbridge.org successfully held a petition campaign to force a referendum on the city's plan to borrow $42 million to finance the project. Council then agreed to seek further information on rehabilitating the bridge, instead of replacing it.
 
Bill Cleverley.