7993 replies to this topic

[dasmo]

The Erasmusburg cost 0.2 million Euros/meter to build in 1996. It's the largest Bascule bridge is Western Europe and a global icon. It truly is a great bridge. It's Bascule portion is twice as long as the JSB span. The JSB is running at 2.2 million CAD / meter.... Inflation and dollar conversion still makes this an obscene price tag. It sits squarely on the ridiculous idea of inventing a new Bascule technology.... I would have been fine with an amazingly designed, Bascule bridge based on the existing principle. that would and should havecost half as much.  This Rolling Bascule design better be the talk of the globe when it's done and generate major tourist revenue because bridge nerds from across the globe will come to marvel at it's ingenuity and beauty....

[David Bratzer]

CFAX is currently running an online poll (bottom left of their main web page): "Do you have faith the Johnson Street Bridge project will be completed on time and on budget?"

[Bingo]

But why wait? Why build a bridge that will be grossly over budget and potentially a maintenance nightmare? We're walking down the plank as far as the engineering report is concerned.

 

Right! This nightmare is similar to the sewage fiasco where we have already spent millions on some faulty ideas.

 

Now he have the bridge fiasco, some of which was predicted back during the referendum. Since that time there have been several points on the timeline where we could have said "enough already", cut our losses and refurbished the existing bridge for a lot less money.

[Bingo]

CFAX is currently running an online poll (bottom left of their main web page): "Do you have faith the Johnson Street Bridge project will be completed on time and on budget?"

 

CFAX_NEWSPOLL_MONDAY Do you have faith the Johnson Street Bridge project will be completed on time and on budget?

 

Yes

6%

 

No

93%

 

[Mike K.]

Anyone who is even remotely aware of the bridge situation knows that this 9% budget increase could be the first of several.

The City spent a handsome sum promoting the "yes vote" and confused the heck out of voters who thought they were getting a 100 year bridge capable of withstanding a massive earthquake, a world-class unique design, a rail crossing (albeit this was axed just before the vote but people still think rail is part of the project) and all for a "fixed price" without a hint of delays.

Less than a year in were faced with 9% in cost increases and potentially six months of delays, a newly brought in project lead to head the project after everyone realized NOBODY was in charge and yet the mayor is still telling us that despite the ugly storm clouds there won't be a storm. And we're falling hook, line and sinker for this while championing council for saving our children and making Victoria more livable through speed reductions.

[Bingo]

The new Craigflower Bridge granted does not need to lift, but the whole project from teardown, to new bridge, was done in a year and cost a fraction of the estimated price of the new JSB.

 

The completed project will cost just over $15.5 million, and was made possible thanks to nearly $14 million through the federal Gas Tax Fund, over $1.2 million from the Town of View Royal and $320,000 from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.
 

 http://www.viewroyal...completion.html

 

[Mike K.]

And yet we only received $21 million of this $93 million (so far) bridge because the Feds required that it be a lifting bridge. Does the $21 million cover the cost of the lifting mechanism? Not a chance.

 

Victoria couldn't secure a penny from neighbouring municipalities, but councillor Geoff Young who is on the NDP sewage committee has no problem trying to sweeten the deal with tax payer money for Esquimalt residents to support a sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point.

[Coreyburger]

The Craigflower Bridge was also over budget and behind schedule.

Compare

http://www.vicnews.c.../225036782.html

and

http://www.bclocalne...tml?mobile=true

[G-Man]

So you are saying that this overrun can be covered through contingency funding as well?

[VicHockeyFan]

Nobody cares about the delays though, Mike.  It's not like we are without a bridge as work proceeds.

[Mike K.]

Well not quite. The public was told by city hall that the current bridge was/is at the absolute end of its life and MUST be replaced immediately. The City even went so far as to remove the rail bridge to drive home the point.

So we went to the polls with great urgency pushing us on and many members of the community were upset that anti-replacement efforts delayed the project for as long as they had, only to learn several years later that construction delays are actually ok and city hall doesn't know what he fuss is about. "It's not like the existing bridge doesn't work, tax payer, so chill..."

[Arnold]

Taxpayers were hustled from the get go on this bridge, but I doubt that they will be able to hustle the contractor as easily. The plans and specifications were not complete at the time of tender and subsequent award. The JSB.org group and or Focus should FOI that contract for proof of that. I predict that this project will result in legal proceedings if the city does not acknowledge this and shell out more money.

Edited by Arnold, 21 July 2014 - 06:17 PM.

[thundergun]

COUNCIL TO DISCUSS PROJECT REVIEW AND PUBLIC REALM THIS THURSDAY

On Thursday, July 24 at 9 a.m. Council will discuss the findings of the external review of the Johnson Street Bridge project during their Governance and Priorities Meeting. They will also discuss the three plaza spaces created as part of the bridge project.

Both reports are available on the Council Updates page and on Victoria.ca on the Governance and Priorities Meeting Agenda page

[VicHockeyFan]

CFAX:

 

http://www.cfax1070....ge-construction

  

July 24, 2014 11:49 from Frank Stanford 
               Victoria Council's Governance and Priorities Committee has voted to ratify several recommendations aimed at getting the Johnson Street Bridge project under control.
 
                The eight specific actions range from approving the hiring of a project manager, which has already been done by the City Manager, to formalizing a project schedule.
 
                 Interim Project Manager Jonathan Huggett advised the committee that work on the bridge should not be halted while disagreements over costs are sorted out...
 
                   “I can’t stop work because there’s disputes going on, and people aren’t agreeing and there’s money issues and all the rest of it.  So I have to find a mechanism to get the job done and continue on in a reasonable manner.  I don’t want to wait, either, till the end of this contract and then walk in and say ‘oh by the way, great bridge, just finished, and here’s a bunch of unpaid bills’”
 
                  The latest status report on construction to date says several aspects of the work are proceeding very well.  There have been no issues under workplace safety; environmental or archaeological sensitivity.

 

 

Uh oh, what does that mean?  I'm sensing the "mechanism" will be "pay them what they are asking" so we can move on.  Or pay them now and sue them later, which sounds awful too.  I'd really like to find someone to blame here for this $8m problem.

[VicHockeyFan]

July 24, 2014 12:36 from Frank Stanford 
                   One Victoria Councillor has floated the idea of allowing the Johnson Street Bridge route to be closed for a few days during construction.
 
                    City Hall has stressed from the start that the bridge replacement would not disrupt traffic because the new bridge is being built in a slightly different location than the existing one.
 
                    But issues have emerged on the access road construction, which caused Councillor Shelley Gudgeon to suggest reconsidering...
 
                 “Do we re-discuss this, given the lack of funds that we have?  Would it be more exponential (sic) to give the message that it’s fine to close it for a week?  We do have the Bay Street Bridge; we have the alternate way of getting into the city, for the cycling route.  You know, there could be allowances made”
 
                    Mayor Dean Fortin agreed that a one week closure might be tolerable but insisted anything longer than that would be problematic.

 

 

http://www.cfax1070....mporary-closure

 

Does anyone know the technical reason this has to be done?  Just to save us the cost of temporary pavement and signage etc. right at the end of the project?

[Mike K.]

Is it right at the end of the project? Do we know that for sure, or is this just the first rumbling of a multitude of closures whenever the City feels it should be done to save money (and by "save money" what they mean is we didn't budget enough for this project in the first place).

 

I'm not ok with this. Traffic will be an absolute nightmare in Vic West -- we've seen this scenario before when the JSB or the BSB were closed on separate occasions.

 

From the City of Victoria:

 

The existing Johnson Street Bridge will stay open throughout construction as crews build the new bridge to the north. The new bridge will open to traffic in late 2015.

 

 

[VicHockeyFan]

I guess we need to watch this morning's meeting.

[Bingo]

During the debates whenever the discussion of refurbishing the existing bridge came up, the city said that the business community would not tolerate any bridge closures.

 

But hey folks... all of that referendum rhetoric went in the dustbin some time ago. 

[aastra]

“Do we re-discuss this, given the lack of funds that we have?  Would it be more exponential (sic) to give the message that it’s fine to close it for a week?  We do have the Bay Street Bridge; we have the alternate way of getting into the city, for the cycling route.  You know, there could be allowances made”

 

Closures related to refurbishment would have utterly destroyed downtown because there was no practical alternative route, remember? Something tells me we don't remember. And something tells me they don't care one way or another whether or not we remember.

 

 

Closing the bridge would endanger jobs
By Elizabeth Cull, Times Colonist August 7, 2010


A recent letter-writer suggested that no one outside of Esquimalt cares about the bridge. Let me beg to differ.

As a small independent business owner on Johnson Street at the Victoria end of the bridge, let me assure you that the closure of the bridge under the refurbishment option would spell the death of my business. We depend on people being able to drive to our business, many of whom live on the West Shore.

I fully support the replacement option for the bridge, even though it will likely increase my property taxes. Why? because if the bridge was closed for even three months, we would be out of business.

Drive-by traffic is huge for small businesses such as mine, and the inconvenience involving in getting to our stores will mean customers will shop elsewhere.

Should you think this is only another business owner caring for her own interests, think again. My business supports seven employees and their families. In these tight economic times, all jobs are important.

Multiply my situation by the many small businesses in the city core and the loss is huge.

Elizabeth Cull
 

 

So if a closure of several weeks would have meant certain death for any (every?) small business downtown, what would a closure of several days mean? No big deal?

Edited by aastra, 24 July 2014 - 01:02 PM.

[VicHockeyFan]

The new Johnson Street Bridge, being manufactured in China.