7993 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

Given that this portion of the trail is likely be the busiest bikeway in the region by far, a better surface is required. I fully expect to see this whole are redesigned within a few years as the challenges of mixing that many people walking & biking become acute.

 

EDIT: The bike lane "metres away" is an extension of the trail you see here, not a replacement.

With the bridge costs already vastly over budget there is no way the CoV should consider any sort of redesign. Cyclists can share the road with cars if this set-up doesn't work for them. 

I am not sure I ever suggested the bike lanes were a replacement for anything, with perhaps the exception of common sense or money well spent.

[Nparker]

...funding work on the Janion Plaza, the Harbour and Esquimalt Road intersection, and the triangle of land east of the new bridge so they are operational by the time the bridge opens on December 31... will cost $1.04 million ... along with a further $4.4 M for the new park created by removal of the S-curve, and $1.5 M for the plaza around the Northern Junk development...

Defer the Fort Street bikes lanes and re-direct those funds to these projects at least until the Pandora lanes prove themselves.

[spanky123]

News feed on CFAX this morning stated that bridge costs have escalated by $7M to cover lighting and plants. 

[Mike K.]

What's our total?

[Sparky]

Mike K says What's our total?

 

^ Total disaster. Just ask Ross. Hey Ross.....Mrs. Sparky thought you looked cute on TV last night.

[Rob Randall]

Are they going to have an expensive grand opening or is a junior staff member going to drag away the sawhorses saying, "here you go you ungrateful bastards".

[Jacques Cadé]

Who's Ross? With $7 million for public spaces, the running total is $112 million, fendering still to come.

 

Council will probably only approve a couple of million on Thursday, to at least make the pathways functional by December 31. But the $7 million will have to be spent eventually ... unless the City recruits volunteer gardeners and landscapers, and buys its benches and lamp standards from Home Depot.

Edited by Jacques Cadé, 11 April 2017 - 07:08 AM.

[nagel]

What I don't understand and didn't bother taking the time to figure out is why the designer said the cost was about 3.6 million in their report (part of the agenda package) but the city says it's 7.  Even with the contingencies that doesn't add up to me.

 

The big one is the southwest corner.  It's a lot of land with grade issues.  The plan looks really good but that's not cheap at about 4 million.

[Mike K.]

What was that famous quote from our former mayor Fortin?

 

Oh, right: "On time and on budget."

[spanky123]

What I don't understand and didn't bother taking the time to figure out is why the designer said the cost was about 3.6 million in their report (part of the agenda package) but the city says it's 7.  Even with the contingencies that doesn't add up to me.

 

The big one is the southwest corner.  It's a lot of land with grade issues.  The plan looks really good but that's not cheap at about 4 million.

 

If they approve $7M now when the cost is only $3.6M it means that the next $3.4M in costs is free and doesn't cost the taxpayer anything :-)

[Mike K.]

...or "we've already approved it," said Mayor Helps. "Bring it on."

[spanky123]

Our friends at Jiangsu Zhongtai Bridge Steel company aren't having a good year. Their stock price is down 30% YTD, a major investor has cut their stake, the dividend has been eliminated and they reported a loss of 51M yuan against revenues of 64M yuan in Q4 2016. No worries though, I am sure that the first shipment will be leaving port in 3 weeks as planned.

 

http://www.capitalcu...-april-26-2017/

[UrbanRail]

Cool, more potential delays!

[Mike K.]

Spanky, they've released their Q1 2017 financials now. Are you able to make some sense of it all?

[spanky123]

I could only find a summary of the financials. They lost 20-30M yuan in Q1 which was about 4x-5x the prior year loss and the stock dropped to a low for the year. There was a bump in price today on good volume but nothing to indicate why.

 

I would have expected PR from the City based on the successful fitting of the parts which was due last month. I guess we will know more in 2 weeks as I mentioned earlier.

[Mike K.]

What's really bizarre is we're now in month two of no updates on the bridge's progress. Not even a paragraph or a single photograph have been posted to the City's website since March. Until March updates were as regular as clockwork with a monthly photo post with info.

[thundergun]

At least they're still updating this every 1-2 weeks. Looks like the plaza is going to finally have pavers installed later this month.

http://www.johnsonst...WK-Schedule.pdf

[nagel]

Not much to update on now.  First shipment is supposed to go out May 29 and the next 1/4ly report is due in June.

[Mike K.]

Actually, the April update was a crucial one in terms of the bridge's progress. The fit-up was to have been completed and the dimensions of the lift span assessed, then the span was to have been disassembled and painting of select components started in time for shipping to Victoria on May 29th.

[Mike K.]

Thanks for the heads-up, spanky. Now we wait for May 29th, and hopefully an update from the City of Victoria before then. This article might spur them to post something, hopefully.

 

Chinese bridge builder responsible for new Johnson Street Bridge sees earnings drop, stock slide

http://victoria.citi...l-structure-co/