Major Traffic Disruption Downtown Tomorrow
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 @ 4:07 AM
The trench on 5th Avenue will cross Victoria Street to connect the District Energy System to the New RCMP building – photo-250 News
Prince George, B.C.-There will be a major disruption to traffic on Victoria Street tomorrow, as the District Energy System is routed to the new RCMP building.
The intersection of 5th and Victoria will be dug up to lay the piping for the system. Traffic will be detoured via Vancouver Street.
This is the last leg of the piping to tie in the RCMP building with the energy system . Connecting the RCMP building to the system will cost between $800,000 and $900,000 with at least some of the costs covered by funds from the Federal “Canada Works Fund”.
Supervisor of Utilities engineering, Kristi Brown says it is hoped this leg of the District energy System will be complete, with the roadway repaved by the end of the week. “We still have some issues with the transfer station at the RCMP building” says Brown, “But the installation of the pipe should just take the one day and then all the sections of roadway that have been disturbed downtown should be repaved by the middle of September.”
The source of heat for the system is on the Lakeland Mills site. Special pipe ( made in Europe) runs under the CN tracks to George Street where a pumping station and back up natural gas system has been installed on the corner of 2nd and George. The total cost of the Downtown Energy system is $14 million dollars with 75% of that cost covered by special grants from senior levels of government.
Comments
Too funny. Wait until the busiest traffic day of the year to do this!
So why don’t they do this on a night shift or next Sunday?
No one goes downtown anyway so who cares!
I suspect Vancouver and Brunswick streets are going to see a bit of an increase in traffic. Hope everyone takes it easy so there are no accidents to tie up traffic further.
Maybe one day it will all make sense. Likely not until I am long dead and gone.
“Maybe one day it will all make sense. Likely not until I am long dead and gone.”
No kidding! I would love someone to come out with some real unspun numbers re: how much this project costs the taxpayer (including all grants) vs. how much it costs to operate and how much this system saves over natural gas. I don’t think it will ever happen though.
“The source of heat for the system is on the Lakeland Mills site”
Is this still a viable heat source?
“Is this still a viable heat source? “
They will lose the “green” tag if Lakeland is not rebuilt and the material is trucked in from Isle Pierre.
As the full impact of the pine beetle hits in the next few years,meaning fewer mills in the area, I would think Canfor will be keeping all of the hog for the pulp mills and cogen plant. The city will be left scrounging around for material to burn and paying a higher price on the open market.Not sure what the contract looks like but the city may have to run the Lakeland facility even if the cost is higher than natural gas.
You can bet that there are a lot of fingers crossed at city hall that Lakeland is rebuilt.
Is this still a viable heat source?
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Thats a good guestion. There is no longer a mill to supply the fuel for this project so what is being used as a fuel ? Maybe its just hot air being fed into the system?
Cheers
Using Lakeland was a bad idea in the first place. If any new mills are viable here, I suspect they would be looking at a new location. Access to that mill is not the best and, over time, there are better uses for the property.
The MPB has changed the rules of the business and I suspect companies are still coming to grips with how to plan for the next generation of mills in this area.
“Thats a good guestion. There is no longer a mill to supply the fuel for this project so what is being used as a fuel”
There is a rumour that they are considering geothermal and are putting in a $17 million grant application.
JohnnyBelt,
For anyone other than the City, the cost of heat under the district heating system is just under double of what it costs for natural gas. This is not including the capital costs to install it.
The City is purchasing heat from Lakeland at $5.50 per GJ–about what natural gas costs; however, when you factor in the capital costs…. Ouch. It’s a mind-numbing expense. With no payback, ever. If natural gas gets over $20/GJ, and Hydro gets over $10/GJ maybe then, but not until.
The argument was that we’d save a lot of greenhouse gas emmissions, not from the natural gas being burnt (because Natural gas produces very little CO2), but because Lakeland wouldn’t have to truck out their waste and the diesel wouldn’t be burnt in their trucks. Of course, now the waste wood is being trucked into town and we’re burning the diesel to use the district energy system.
The source of the heat from the lakeland site is nothing more than an economiser add on to the existing sawdust fired thermal oil heating system installed in the mid 80’s. Wonder why the city wants everyone to believe it is some sort of wood fired system the city installed?
Payback is most certainly in never, never, land. A typical city of PG waste of taxpayer dollars.
Icicle, I am not as familiar with this as you seem to be.
Based on what you wrote, it would appear to me that the City did not engage in a time honoured best practices process of a risk analysis under various scenarios. With the amount of money involed and what in my opinion would be a high risk of plant sdhutdowwn I would not hav e opted for this project.
I am wondering why they opted for a direct burial in the streets rather than the sidewalk location they originally proposed down third avenue.
One of the more obvious ones would, of course, have to be on which no longer includes a mill.
The Community Energy System financials, etc; are all on the City Website, along with the Citys agreement with Lakeland Mills.
The City put this ((Stupid)) project in motion a few years ago, and although they did get 75% of the funding from different levels of Government it will still cost taxpayers in excess of $5 Million dollars, plus maintenance, staffing, etc; over the years.
Natural Gas prices have plummeted in North America since this project started, and we now have a surplus of natural gas, so I would suggest that any savings from switching to this system from natural gas, has now gone by the wayside, and if so, then the ***revenue stream*** that this project was going to make for the City probably will not materialize. In addition as mentioned before, they are now hauling the hog fuel from Isle Pierre, to Prince George, and in effect have probably increased the fine particulates into the airshed, as opposed to reducing them as originally stated.
So, when is the City going to re-do thier numbers and come up with the cost of this project using the new numbers and conditions.
You can rest assured that they are going along as if nothing has happened, however what really has happened, is that they now have another white elephant on their hands.
Dont hold your breath waiting for an updated financial cost for this project.
It’s mind boggling to say the least. How on earth are we ever going to see a payback or cost savings on a project like this? I mean ever. From one carbon footprint to another. This whole concept is a sham from the get go.
I am not a complicated person, but even I can see past all the smoke and mirrors on this fiasco.
This is very complicated, and I am not a complicated person, how in the hell this conversation went from digging up 5th ave/victoria st. to who, when and why we shall fuel the new cop shop shhheesh I get lost on here sometimes.
P.S…. Will the new cop shop have fluoride in the water,,,,let’s beat that one to death again shall we. Just saying….
Nope the new cop shop has a built in reverse osmosis system intalled to the tune of 1.5 million. Unfortunatley the showers and filling stations will not be open to the public.
“From one carbon footprint to another”
It’s the only way to move forward when one is walking …. one carbon footprint at a time.
What a gigantic waste of money. Hey just what is the mean temperature of the earth anyhow?
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