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Bridge opening long overdue |
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Written by -- Editor Dave Paulson
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Friday, 16 May 2008 |
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MURRY KRAUSEEDITOR DAVE PAULSONMAYOR COLIN KINSLEYDON ZUROWSKI
Mayor Colin Kinsley pledged this week that the $9.9-million bridge will open before his final term expires in December.
It would put an exclamation point on his 12 years as mayor because a new crossing has been on Kinsley's wish list for a number of years.
However, it's fairly certain a new Cameron Street Bridge would have been open at least two years ago had it not been for the grandiose vision of Kinsley, ironically enough, and three others on city council.
According to minutes of a city council meeting in November 2004, council was given a report -- the Nechako River Crossing Conceptual Plan -- that estimated the cost of an entirely new bridge at $20 million.
Concerned about the price tag, Coun. Don Zurowski made a motion to direct city administration to report back to council on the cost of replacing the Cameron Street Bridge's wooden infrastructure with a new metal structure using the existing piers.
Supporting Zurowski's motion were councillors Dan Rogers, Sherry Sethen and Brian Skakun.
Opposing the motion -- instead favouring the idea of forging ahead with the $20-million alternative -- were Kinsley and councillors Don Bassermann, Cliff Dezell and Glen Scott.
The motion to consider the less expensive option was defeated in a 4-4 vote. Coun. Murry Krause was absent, which raises the possibility that the bridge would have been completed long ago had he been at the meeting and supported the motion.
In the following year's mayoral election campaign, Kinsley squared off against Rogers. Kinsley
again pushed the concept of a brand-new bridge while Rogers opposed it, saying there were less costly and more efficient options.
Kinsley won by only 642 votes, his victory sealed by supporters on the north side of the Nechako, many of whom used the old bridge daily.
Only weeks after the 2005 election, the new council dropped the decision to go ahead with the new bridge and asked city staff to look into rehabilitating the current bridge using the same concrete piers -- essentially the same motion council defeated 13 months earlier.
It wasn't until December 2006 that council approved a budget for the design of the refurbished bridge and passed a motion to apply for $2 million, the maximum allowed, under the federal-provincial Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund.
The MRIF grant was announced last September but wasn't finalized until this month. Council officially awarded the contract to IDL Projects of Prince George and construction is expected to begin shortly.
As it turns out, pursuing the $20-million option for a completely new bridge was a crapshoot because it would have required two-thirds buy-in from the provincial and federal governments -- and there was never a chance the senior governments would contribute that amount.
What taxpayers are left with is the promise of a two-lane metal crossing that will open more than three years after the last vehicle was allowed to cross the old wooden bridge.
For many, especially the outgoing mayor, its opening will be an occasion to celebrate. But it'll be an event that is at least two years too late and, taking inflation and cost of materials into consideration, a couple million dollars more expensive than it should have been.
-- Editor Dave Paulson
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 May 2008 )
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