In a lengthy meeting of the Governance and Priorities Committee this afternoon city council said that the rehabilitation or replacement of the Johnson Street Bridge must be at the “lifeline level,” meaning it should be able to survive an 8.5 magnitude earthquake.

Only councillor Geoff Young voted against the 8.5 standard, saying a lesser standard would be more cost effective and would balance cost versus risk. Other councillors said the risk of having an unusable bridge after a moderate quake would be far more costly to the economic and physical well-being of the city after a disaster. Staff described building to anything less than an 8.5 M standard “shortsighted”.

Thursday's meeting of the Governance and Priorties Committee where bridge funding issues were debated. Photo by Robert Randall © by VibrantVictoria.ca.

Council also voted 8 to 1 in favour of seeking funding for the rail portion of the bridge from any and all sources by August 12, 2010. After that date, Council said the future of rail options on the new or repaired bridge would be in serious doubt, with several councillors expressing concern that other municipalities that benefit from commuter rail may not pony up the cash necessary to ensure a link into downtown.

The debate was sometimes heated during the four-hour meeting as councillors faced off on the topic of rail, who would be paying for it and what the implications would be if rail was left off the November referendum question, with some fearing the prospect of a bridge without rail would trigger a backlash and a certain “no” vote.

The topic of turning one westbound automobile lane into a mixed-use trail was dismissed, with City staff saying the path would be unsafe with the width being too narrow for bicycles. City emergency responders weren’t happy with the two lane option, reporting to staff that police, fire and ambulance response times would increase.

In addition, the Committee decided not to cloud the funding issue by including proceeds from land sales into the financial calculations related to bridge realignment. Staff estimated that five million dollars could be gained by selling of surplus land around the bridge.

Council will now begin the engagement part of the strategy.

The VibrantVictoria.ca discussion forum has four threads devoted to the Johnson Street Bridge project in the Infrastructure subforum.

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