Im not sure that I would want to be associated with this new bridge.

(1) 4 years to get the job done.

(2) Over budget. God knows how much

(3) Roundaboout and Cement bridge over Mcmillan creek somewhere in the area of $2.5 Million which apparently goes onto the road budget rather than the bridge budget.

(4) Major Dangerous goods routed through a crowded roundabout located adjacent to the Nechako River.

(5) Roundabout that will be to small to accomodate all the traffic during rush periods. This will create traffic back-ups, on the new bridge, and on Pulp Mill road, and North Nechako Road.

(6) At certain times of the day I predict chaos at the North End of the Bridge, and as a result in a short period of time passenger vehicle traffic will revert to 5th and Carney to avoid the delays. If this happens, then the whole excercise of building a new bridge and two laning it to expedite traffic will have been in vain.

We will need a traffic count on the bridge 6 months after it opens to see if in fact the traffic using the bridge increased from 8000 vehicles per day to 14000 vehicles per day as predicted by the City. My guess is the increase in traffic will never happen, and the traffic count will never take place, or if it does the results will not be released.

Have fun at the photo op,and ribbon cutting, and bring your camera, as the keystone cops will be buzzing around the roundabout.

When does the bridge that actually matters (97 south) open?

round abouts are much more efficient than traffic lights.

I beleive that most of these negative comments do not have any facts backing them up.

I certainly hope so! I'm not sure what I mean after typing that. I just had to comment.

Clean. Roundabouts are more efficient under some circumstances, not all. In this case the roundabout will be a bottleneck.

I doubt if you have any facts to support your idea that this roundabout under these sets of circumstances is better than lights.

In any event the roundabout was built because it was ****cheaper***** than lights, and not because anyone thought that it was actually more efficient. This whole fiasco is about cost. Not common sense.

Once shes up and running we will see how it works. Personally I think it is a huge screw up, that will haunt us for years.

Palopu, you maybe right. Cost is a driver with this whole bridge for sure but....

I have never encountered a problem driving around europe with all its circles. They were great when I used them. They were much better than lights. I never stopped while driving to a destination.

Even in high density traffic, the circles were great.

Im not sure if a tandem trailer will throw a wrench into the cicles or not. We will see.

Clean. Some points to consider.

(1) Super B Trains of Woodchips, and Empty B Train Tankers going East through roundabout will block Northbound traffic off the bridge. So will empty woodchip Super B Trains, and loaded B Trains of diesel and gasoline heading West into the roundabout. In addition you will have all the other truck traffic. 53ft loaded and empty vans, etc;

(2) This roundabout was originally planned to be two lanes, however it was reduced to one lane. (How many roundabouts in Europe were one lane???) I suspect that they went to one lane because of cost, and the limited room they had to work with. A one lane roundabout with heavy super b train truck traffic, seems to be asking for trouble.

(3) How will this roundabout work under winter conditions. If a car or truck gets stuck in certain areas of the roundabout, it will completely stop traffic.

(4) Because of the size of the roundabout traffic entering it and exiting it will have to do so at reduced speeds, during peak traffic periods this will slow down traffic, and cause congestion.

palopu
seeing as how you're the resident expert on bridges and traffic circles....

-tell us how much over budget this whole project is, right now.

-how do you know we were due to have a two lane traffic circle?

-why does snow on a traffic circle cause it to completely stop?

-didn't the tender for Mcmillan creek come in at 1.25 Million, how does it become 2.5 million???

looking forward to your responses

I drove out and took a look at the traffic circle and I dont think it will cause much concern most of the time. The only pntential problem I see is when a truck is coming off the bridge and heading north on 97 - The roundabout will not allow any real speed before the long climb up the hill. During a snowstorm it may be the next Peden Hill for trucks, where the lights at the bottom of the hill also takes away any momentum they have.

Buzzbomb. I wish I could tell you how much over budget this bridge is, however these numbers have not been released to the general public. What we do know is the following.

(1) The roundabout was chosen because it would cost an additional $929,000.00 of work on the North end of the bridge if lights were chosen. This amount of course would be charged to the bridge budget. As far as I know the cost of the roundabout approx $1.5 Million will come out of the road budget, and not be charged against the bridge.

(2) The idea to build a bridge over McMillan Creek came after the construction of the Cameron St, Bridge commenced. Supposedly the corrugated steel culverts need replacing, after 50 years. In actual fact corrugated steel culverts have a lifespan of 100 years and this information is readily available on the internet. I would sugget that the building of the bridge will tie in with the roundabout, and will probably have some better access to the Hart Hiway. The cost of the McMillan St Bridge is $1.5 Million and this will come out of the Citys Community Works Fund. Therefore we have channelled $3 Million from other budgets for work that realistically should be charged to the bridge budget.

(3) An article in the Prince George Citizen dated Oct 11, 2007 has a sketch that clearly shows the roundabout having 2 lanes. In addition the following statements were made in the article.

(a) ICBC Road Safety Engineer Dave Dean.

**The Prince George version of a roundabout will be a two-lane roundabout, which can be necessary to handle higher traffic volumes** **Just because a single-lane roundabout is simpler doesnt mean its the best fix for an intersection thats got higher traffic volumes, you have to accommodate the traffic volumes**

(b) Frank Blues City Asset Manager. City of Prince George. Same article.

**Consultants calculated the volumes of traffic to the year 2023 and found that wait time on the Eastbound lane of North Nechako Road during peak time would be 60 seconds, and that for the Northbound bridge ramp approach it would be 20 seconds. In contrast, two-lane entry for both these legs lowered the estimated delay time to 10 seconds for all approaches. Blues also noted that its expected that half the traffic from the northbound bridge ramp will turn west to North Nechako Road, and half will continue north to Highway 97. **With two lanes in the roundabout, both of these movements can occur simultaneously Blues said**

We can see from the foregoing that there were concerns about delays, safety etc; with a one lane roundabout, however in the end the one lane option was chosen. Probably (again) because of cost. It seems pretty obvious that there will now be delays to traffic because of the single lane.

(4) Snow creates ice. Ice causes people to spin out and get stuck. If passenger vehicles or trucks should spin out or get stuck going West into the roundabout, or going North to the Hart Highway they will effectively block traffic into the roundabout. Because there is only one lane, and because of snow conditions, it will be necessary to remove these vehicles before traffic can commence moving again. One would think that the City would ensure that the roundabout is kept clear of snow and well sanded, however this intersection is used 24 hours per day seven days per week, and you can be sure we are going to have some incidents.

The City Budget for the Bridge in 2007 was as follows.
(a) Cost $9.7 Million in total

(b) The City to spend $6.5 Million , with $3.8 Million to be borrowed.

(c) $2 Million coming from the Federal and Provincial Governments.

(c) $754,000.00 coming from the development cost charge reserve for roads.

If we add (and we should) the $1.5 Million from the road budget, and $1.5 Million from the Community Works Fund, we could safely say that they are $ 3 Million over budget. My guess is that it will be more substantial than that.

Are we not in a position to be thankful it taint one like of those new toll bridges like they have down south?

Just around the corner? Gadzooks! I would say, "Just around the roundabout".