This was posted at Vibrant Victoria, I wonder what happened to the work done in 1999 and if we can get our money back since the promises seem not to have been met?

Blue bridge to get $1-million facelift

Jeff Bell. Times - Colonist.
Apr 3, 1999
(Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 1999)

The 75-year-old Johnson Street Bridge is set for a million- dollar refit that will begin within a few weeks.

The project will last about three months. During that time only one lane outbound from Victoria to Vic West and Esquimalt will be open to vehicle traffic, said Clive Timms, Victoria's manager of transportation and development.

At some point during the project the bridge will be shut down for an entire week so that repairs can be done on the main span. It will be in the "up" position during the full closure.

Timms said the repairs will give the bridge several more decades of useful life, and will even help head off the need for repainting - - a job that carries a million-dollar price tag of its own.

Some paint touch-ups will be part of the current project, but the entire bridge will need another coat of its trademark light-blue paint within the next two years, Timms said.

The refit needs formal approval at next week's meeting of Victoria council, but council's committee of the whole has agreed to award the job to Formula Pile & Bridge Contractors Ltd.

The Prince George-based company was the lowest of six bidders at $1,007,585.83. The company maintains a Victoria office and uses "a significant number of local staff," Timms said.

Pedestrians and cyclists walking their bikes will be able to cross the bridge during most of the repair period, Timms said. The only exception will be during the week it is fully closed, and city staff is negotiating for pedestrian use of the adjacent railway bridge during that time.

Work on the blue bridge includes replacement of corroded steel beams that support the concrete decks on either side of the bridge.

"We have to replace those entire deck sections," Timms said.

Several steel members on the main "lift" span also will be replaced.

"That's where we have to do the complete closure with the bridge fully up for a week ."

Councillors will also be considering $900,000 in seismic upgrading to the Point Ellice Bridge within the next several weeks, Timms said. Work on the first phase of the Point Ellice Bridge upgrade could overlap the work on the Johnson Street Bridge since Point Ellice crews will be working below the bridge from a barge, and won't be affecting traffic.

Timms said he hopes that the first phase of the Point Ellice Bridge project will be completed this year, with the second phase to be done during the first half of 2000.