On April 02 2009, the City of Victoria announced plans for repairing or replacing the historic Johnson Street Bridge, an integral piece of infrastructure separating the Inner Harbour from the Upper Harbour.  Despite a 1999 rehabilitation meant to prolong the life of the bridge by twenty years, in 2009 tax payers learned that the structure required immediate action to prevent a complete closure.  From that day forward, VibrantVictoria.ca’s discussion forum became a repository for news and debate related to the project.

This article is the first of two parts (part two is available here) summarizing major facts and opinions as recorded in the [Johnson Street Bridge ] – General Discussion thread from April of 2009 to the present day.  Part two will focus on the community debate as it took place on VibrantVictoria.ca’s forum.

Morning sunrise over the Johnson Street Bridge. Photo © by VibrantVictoria.ca.

Spring 2009

The Johnson Street Bridge’s (JSB) General Discussion thread was started by VibrantVictoria.ca forum member “amor de cosmos,” who referenced a April 02 2009 Times Colonist article announcing City Hall’s plans for replacing or refurbishing the bridge.  In that article the “preliminary evaluations” returned estimates of $15-million for refurbishing the bridge and $30-million for a replacement.   However, a few hours later new numbers were released to the media that saw the cost of repairing jump 100% to $30-million and the cost of replacement increase to $40-million.

City Hall having released the most general cost estimates first, only to have them revised a few hours later, foreshadowed planning and public relations missteps that would dog the City throughout the entire project.  In fact the main quote by Mayor Fortin in the April 02 Times Colonist article would raise questions about council’s grasp of the situation. “Fifteen million? Where does that come from?,” asked Mayor Fortin.

Throughout the next month, City Hall focused on advocating bridge replacement (with councillors ultimately voting in support of replacement on April 23).  However, VibrantVictoria.ca members revealed that San Francisco had recently repaired a bascule bridge identical to the JSB.  How much that refurbishment project cost quickly became a focal point in the debate between replacement and refurbishment.

The first number to be quoted on the discussion forum for the San Francisco bridge refurbishment project was $17-million.  Shortly afterwards, on April 20, Mayor Fortin went on CBC Radio and claimed that the same project had cost $100-million. This spurred forum member “G-Man” to do some research, turning up four different articles each quoting a different number: one said $23-million, two said $34-million and another $55-million. As “G-Man” put it: “…how do we know as taxpayers how much anything really costs…”

Summer 2009

On May 01 City Hall revised its estimates again: replacing the bridge would now cost $60-million, while the cost of repairing remained the same. The reason for this new price increase was due to more detailed estimates that included things like the approaches and a financial reserve to build an “architecturally pleasing” crossing.

Despite refurbishment being the less costlier option, council’s vote on April 23 to favour replacement hinged on securing provincial and federal grants.  However, the same day City Hall’s new numbers were release the public learned that the City had missed the original deadline for federal and provincial infrastructure grants worth $40-million.

Several weeks later on May 21, a press release was issued that announced the true cost of a new bridge by itself, not including anything else, was pegged at a more palatable $29-million.

For the remainder of the summer City Hall concentrated on a new plan to secure infrastructure grant monies.  In tandem, City Hall announced a hiring spree for three new communications directors tasked with handling the City’s media campaign for the JSB “replacement project,” as the positions were then described.

It was around this time that a group of citizens established JohnsonStreetBridge.org (JSB.org), a resource that grew out of the VibrantVictoria.ca discussion threads focused on the bridge.  JSB.org billed itself as a repository of information for the project and would become a major driver of project transparency that included spearheading one of the most talked-about counter-petitions in British Columbia’s history.

Fall/Winter 2009

The federal government announced a $21-million stake in the replacement of the JSB in October 2009.  Minister John Baird, who made the announcement, would later sideline questions about the use of the money for a refurbishment project.  Originally the province was expected to contribute $20-million as well, although that grant was never announced.

In late October, City Hall introduced a bylaw to borrow $42-million dollars to fund the remainder of bridge replacement.  The bylaw wasn’t read until after councillors had spent four hours debating a liquor store application, which meant that the biggest borrowing decision in Victoria’s municipal history was made well after 11pm by what some considered to be a tired council.

Several VibrantVictoria.ca forum members who were in attendance criticized council for this, including member “Martini” who wrote: “Why on earth is a liquor store application spread over [four] hours before a major decision costing $63 million? [...] There is something inherently wrong with a borrowing decision of this magnitude being dragged along like a dead carcass.”

In spite of having three well-paid professionals to help the City with public relations, the summer ended with another public relations fiasco: after encouraging the public to vote on a design for the bridge, City Hall ignored the public’s decision.  And that’s when JSB.org’s $42-million borrowing bylaw counter-petition process got under way.

In December of 2009, JSB.org’s petition had succeeded in collecting over 10% of signatures from eligible voters who were set against the borrowing of tens of millions of dollars for the City’s share of the replacement.  After the petition to retract the borrowing bylaw was accepted by City Hall, the dust settled and various stakeholders retreated to craft plans for what would eventually lead up to a referendum planned for the fall of 2010.

Summer 2010

After what seemed like months of few advancements on the project, on June 14 2010, City Hall announced that replacement and refurbishment costs had risen yet again. Where 15 months previously the cost of refurbishing the JSB had been $15 million, it would now cost $103 million. And while replacement had traditionally always been more expensive, it was now pegged at a comparably cheaper price of $89-million, though this latest price was still up nearly $60-million from the April 02 2009 figure. The latest numbers, City Hall reiterated, would include all costs for any realignments, biking, pedestrian and rail upgrades.

The reason for the increase, according to City Hall, was due to the prolonging of the project planning stage and the escalation of the project costs since the initial estimates from 2009.  However, the Vancouver Island Construction Association spoke to televised media and opposed City Hall’s reasoning by claiming that construction costs and material costs had actually decreased in that time period, and competition among builders had increased.  In other words, the new price tag had more to do with City Hall tabulating realistic costs to build a new span or refurbish it, rather than estimates totaling a comparatively small $63-million.

VibrantVictoria.ca’s discussion forum has four discussion threads where the different aspects of the Johnson Street Bridge (JSB) project are discussed: [Johnson Street Bridge] – General discussion, [Johnson Street Bridge] – Design and technical discussion, [Johnson Street Bridge] Funding discussion (incl. counter-petition) and [Johnson Street Bridge] Photos and historical discussion.

Read part two of the Johnson Street Bridge retrospective.

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