So if the opportunity to build a working bridge was taken away from the contractor, did the contractor at that time indicate that it would cost more, or take longer prior to physically starting the project on site? Or is the contractor taking advantage of an opportunity.

As part of the contract did IDL ever indicate that they wanted to build a working bridge??

Or... did the plans as they submitted when bidding show that they were going to do teh job as they have done???

August 15 you say.....what year?

It's beginning to look pretty good! Any idea if the famous roundabout will be ready on August 15th 2009?

From the Prince George Citizen August 13, 2008:

'Prince George, B.C.- The Cameron Street bridge will be open for traffic by the end of this year.
The contractor, IDL Projects has signed an agreement that the bridge will be completed no later than December 31st of 2008.

Manager of General Operations for the City, Bob Radloff says there is always a chance the bridge could be completed sooner “If we get ideal conditions we’ll do better than that date, if there’s adverse conditions, we don’t know for sure what effect that might have, but it might take them to December 31st to complete.”

That is REALLY low - blaming the former mayor for miscommunication coming out of the the office of the Manager of Development and Operations.

Maybe Mr. Radloff should spend less time with his private consulting engineering business and more time keeping track of important civic projects.

And so it goes. At this point in time who really cares whether the bridge is ever finished.

The whole process was a scam from the very beginning. We never needed a new bridge to be built, it was just a stupid idea by the former Mayor and some councillors. The only people to benefit as usual are the contractors.

Prince George taxpayers are once again taken to the cleaners.

It will be interesting to see the final numbers. It only took four years to get this project done. The twinning of the Simon Fraser took only two years., and the new Port Mann Bridge will probably take 2 years or less. Seems we have a problem in this town, when it comes to bridge building.

Have a nice day.

We could use this bridge out in Willow River :-)

Still the wrong location no matter how long it takes. More pollution for the bowl, more dirt and noise for the residents of the area. Still a disaster for the long term development of the City.
Nothing will make it right.

While I find the option to post an anonymous post to the articles a convenient option, I find that the comments are often poorly informed and to be honest without merit. The comments to date on this article in my opinion fit the poorly informed and malicious category, for this reason here are my comments in accountable form.

The bridge is needed, it is a crucial transportation link between Hwy 16 and 97 North. The need is to take truck traffic off of 5th avenue as well as reduce the loads over the hwy 97 Nechako crossing. It is my understanding that this traffic is considerable.

It's not uncommon for major stuctures such as this to take up to two years to complete, I'm sure everyone can remember it took over 2 years to complete the hwy 97 twinning not so many years ago. Environmental concerns and such often add months and even years to similar projects.

For those who say "more pollution and more dirt and noise to the residents of the area".... this is an industrial area.... there are no residents immediately impacted, in fact it will benefit the residents on Carney Steet and 5th Avenue as they will no longer have the traffic headed for Hwy97 traveling through their neighborhoods. An improvement both environmentally and safety wise. To be honest, I was not involved in the public consultation for this project but I'm sure all of the concerns shown in the comments on this article were covered in that process.

As Mayor Kinsley was identified as the official spokesman for the project prior to Mayor Rogers taking office, he should be held accountable for his overly optimistic timeline. Infrastructure projects often have optimistic timelines, often for political gain, when the reality of bureaucracy involving obtaining environmental permits and the like will often change the timelines originally proposed by the proponent, in this case the City of Prince George.

The firms involved in constructing the new bridge, in this case IDL have little recourse in the legislatively required permitting activities and in my opinion cannot be held accountable for those delays.

It sounds like there is a dispute resolution process in place so I think as residents we should allow that process to proceed as it will determine fairly the final cost of the bridge.

I do find it refreshing that the mayor actually made a site visit with the contractor to review progress, this is a normal progress review on any major project, which the people of Prince George have not seen in some time, to my knowledge. I think Mayor Dan Rogers and council should be congratulated on their proactive approach in dealing with a project that has had some scope changes.

Best of luck to the City and IDL in working out the scope changes on this project, I know you'll get it right.

Dean Chartier

I dont know if you want a medal for signing your name Dean or what. Your point could have been made just as well anonymously and without the sanctimony. Once again, i am at pains to point out that the people who post anonymously here do not do so because they are ashamed of their posts. It is not like you rpost was controversial or anything. Sheesh.
By the way, i think that it takes an awful long time to twin/build bridges these days. We used to run bigger crews building houses than these guys seem to be doing lately on a multimillion dollar project.

The adjoining residents presently have truck traffic running one way down Fifth and along Carney. With the opening the of the bridge, they will now have truck traffic running two ways. They do not live in an industrial area and were established residents prior to the expansion of the poorly planned industrial area on River Road.

Dean or northernjoe or whatever ....

With respect to anonymity, can you please find a way to let the readers here know that you are actually Dean Chartier. Perhaps you can also verify which on of many Dean Chartiers you are.

Do you see the problem????

Irrespective of your name, you said: "I find that the comments are often poorly informed and to be honest without merit"

Yes. And some of your comments could fit that category quite well, even you do not feel that to be true.

"The bridge is needed, it is a crucial transportation link between Hwy 16 and 97 North." If it is crucial in what is a provincial highway grid, then the City should not have allowed it to be removed from the grid.

"It is my understanding that this traffic is considerable." What do you consider to be considerable? By traffic counts, it is actually is not considerable. A one lane industrial truck use only bridge would have been satisfactory based on the traffic counts. In addition, it is questionable how long the manufacturing industry along River Rd will survive in that location. I give it 5 years, if that.

"It's not uncommon for major stuctures such as this to take up to two years to complete". I have news for you, this is not a major structure. It is a simple 2 lane bridge for which piers did not even have to be placed into the river. Had that been required, I would aggree with a 2 year time span may have been required if the weather had not cooperated.

"this is an industrial area.... there are no residents immediately impacted"
Most interesting point of view. The CN yards, plus the two mills in the area are the major sources of particulate pollution, irrespective of the VOCs and other emissions, in the downtown of Prince George putting out about 150 tonnes per year of total particulates, 20 tonnes of that is PM2.5. The better the supporting transportation is, the longer these plants will be around.

"As Mayor Kinsley was identified as the official spokesman for the project .... he should be held accountable for his overly optimistic timeline."

I was involved with an aspect of the project which dealt with timelines. I too was given such "optimitstic" timelines. I thought the original timelines were aggressive, but not impossible for an experienced bridge builder.

"The firms involved in constructing the new bridge ... have little recourse in the legislatively required permitting activities and in my opinion cannot be held accountable for those delays"

You are obviously not an engineer/contractor. Experienced Engineers and experienced contractors know the processes involved and the length of time it can take and the due diligence required on everyone's part to get things done in a timely fashion. In their estimating process they must account for such potential delays and estimate the length and the cost (delays cost money) of the project. Unless they have conditions to cover such contingencies in the contract the risk is transferred from the client to the contractor. If IDL is now going to claim an extra due to delay beyond their controil, it should make for interesting negotiations.

" ...... this is a normal progress review on any major project, which the people of Prince George have not seen in some time, to my knowledge."

I suppose that would depend on what you mean by "some time" .. a $10 million or so project is not a major project ... there is a $30+ million bridge accross the Fraser which should open at almost the same time. There was a $20+ million sports complex ... and another building at the UNBC just prior to that in that price range. Then there was a $30+ runnway expansion, and of course, the airport teminal expansion prior to that .... and there is a $50million new industrial plant about to be built ... then there is a $20+ million cargo handling facility at the CN yards ......

Where are you located Dean or northernjoe or whoever? Sounds like you do not get out very much around here.

BTW, if you are the Dean Chartied from Canfor, you should be ashamed of yourself for knowing so little about this community.

Lamb, if the "residents of Carney presently have truck traffic running one way down Fifth and along Carney" I assume you are referring to Eastbound traffic, so where are the Westbound trucks going? They must surely be following First avenue to Carney, then Carney to Fifth, no?
It takes longer to build these projects these days because there are a lot more rules to follow, i.e. special precautions for working over and beside a river, fall protection, and so on. Almost every task, however mundane, takes longer than it would have twenty years ago, not just because of the near intense focus on safety and the environment, but also because todays young workforce do not have the same work ethic (sorry, but it's true)
metalman.

"It takes longer to build these projects these days because there are a lot more rules to follow"

I repeat once more. That is not an excuse. That is knowledge that any design engineer, quantity surveyor and contractor has before they begin to work on the design so that they can design a bridge accordingly, give an opinion on what it will cost before the final drawings are done, and provide a lump sum or cost plus estimate for a project.

Yes correct metalman.
Westbound River Road, First, Carney, Fifth to the By-Pass. They will now be going Westbound as well from Cameron Street Bridge, with acceleraton on the hill at Carney.

Isn't is pathetic? All these delays and excuses.