I was looking through the City of Victoria's powerpoint of April 2nd 2009. In this report consulting engineering firm of Delcan had construction times estimates of 24 to 48 months for a new bridge. They also had estimates of $35 to $40 million to replace the bridge. We already see that number having been breached in what the city wants to borrow for the project.
It concerns me that Delcan found the timeframes for a a $35-$40 million dollar bridge to be two to four years. I fail to see how something could be done in the 17 months they have planned for at the moment.
I am also wondering what life will be like without any bridge available to anyone from November 2009 to March 2011. There is no way the traffic could be handled over the Point Ellice Bridge. The city has not yet released anything on how the traffic issues will be dealt with. The second busiest bus route in this region, the #6, crosses the bridge. The bridge is also an important cycling access into to downtown from all over the region because of the galloping goose. What are the plans to manage these issues during the project?
Also interesting to see is that as of January of this year the City of Victoria did not have the bridge on its priority list. Scroll to page 31 on this link. This was a list of projects that were ready to start construction as soon as the money as approved. At that time replacing the Crystal Pool was on the list as a priority that was a ready to begin construction, as were many more. Has the city gone forward with any of the others? Will the city be going forward with any more of them given that they city told the feds it was ready to break ground on all of them?
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