"Most importantly, the re-constructed River Road now sits above the 200-year flood level, meaning flood-related disruptions should be kept to a minimum. In a news release, the city says the upgrade "will improve and strengthen the interface between rail and road transport modes by providing reliable, uncongested all season access to and from the CN Intermodal facility"

The road may well be above the 200 year flood level, but what happens when the CN yards and the rest of the river road industries are under water from flood related impacts? I assume that the road isn't engineered as a functioning levee type system and besides, doesn't much of the flooding in that area actually result from water seeping up through the soil? What's the point of having a "flood proof" road if the businesses being served by that road are still susceptible to flood related issues?

IMHO, this money should've gone towards relocating the industry out of that area completely. Of course, the city probably wouldn't have received the grants for that, nevermind the fact that such an ambitious project seems well beyond the vision and scope of what our city leadership can handle.

WOOHOO!!! Let the bells ring and the banners fly out.After a hundred years an old road gets paved and all the public teat sucking politicians want to come out and glad hand.
I am impressed!
NOT!!!

Are the provincial politicians going to stay invisable or surface for a photo op? Either way I will remember their record with the HST

Along the same line Global news had a long piece showing Bond dedicating a new bus route in Kelowna, WTF. A bus route! How much did that cost flying her around for a bus Route. The fiberals are realy losing it.

Hopefully the Recall happens sooner than later!!

Saw that one seamutt!
Embarrassing to say the least!
It was also Kelowna...which ranks right up there with the lower mainland when it comes to cash handouts!

Seven million dollars towards relocating all of that industry? Apparently all $7,000,000 can do is build a road. Relocation of all those businesses would cost a fortune far greater than a few million bucks.

I'm still pissed about a 425,000 dollar foot bridge to nowhere. Don't we have any engineers working for the city? Don't we have city employees that could build a little foot bridge. How can we sit back and let this crap happen without our consent? This council spends on an obscene level for the most trivial items. Get a grip Dan!! I voted for you because I thought you would be a little tighter with our money. One term's all you get.

Is this ever a great project.Wonder if Bond and Bell will attend this grand event.
Cheers

"Don't we have any engineers working for the city? Don't we have city employees that could build a little foot bridge."

The City may not have enough employees,i.e. being shorthanded.

;-)

Wish there were some photos posted with this story showing these improvements as I no longer live in PG.

I have stated for sometime now that a lot of these projects are built because there is money available from the different levels of Government to build them. All the City has to do is come up with some matching funds. The problem with this concept, is that the Citys portion of the money is spent on a foolish project rather that on something that is more beneficial to the City. This road is a case in point.

A couple of years ago the esteemed Mr Colin Kinsley, then Mayor floated the idea of expanding Queensway through South Fort George, to Patricia Blvd, then they would build a road on Lower Patricia at the base of the hill to 1st Avenue, and then an overpass to connect with River Road. The idea behind this concept would be to facilitate the increased traffic to River Road for conatiners, and logging trucks.

The Federal Government advised the City that they did not have any money available for this project, and on hearing that the City dropped it like a hot potatoe. Seems if the Feds had no money then the project was not needed. The City certainly was not going to build it on their own.

Fast forward approx one year, and guess what. The Feds say that they do have some money available under the Asia Pacific Gateway Corridor. So the City and the Feds came up with the idea to upgrade River Road. This decision was not based on solid economics, in fact I doubt if any economic studies were even done. It was based on the nebulous idea that the CN Container Terminal had some sort of connection to Prince Rupert, even though 90% of the lumber, pulp, and paper from this area goes through the Port of Vancouver. In any event both are Pacific Ports, and a case could be made to make the money available.

So we end up with a brand new road through a 3rd rate industrial area, where business will more likely move than stay, at a cost of $7 Million. The Citys portion for this road $3.5 Million was more than what was spent on roads for the whole bloody City this year.

What is the pay back from this project. Absolutely nothing. We will have the same business, (or less) very little container traffic, certainly not enough to replace the trucks that used to go into Winton Global before it closed. So in essence we upgraded a road for no other reason than to spend Federal dollars, that we had to match.

The mention of the 200 year flood plain is bogus, because the 200 year flood plain changed significantly with the building of the Kenny Dam. In any event as mentioned earlier the water that floods this area seeps in from under ground, thats why the East End of 3rd and 4th Avenue floods every year, and why the City has a huge pumping operation at the East End of 1st Avenue at the base of the Yellowhead Bridge. So this road will not impede flooding to any great extent.

The same applies to the Community Energy System. Rumour has it that the City could have purchaed and piped hot water from Intercontinental Pulp to heat all the downtown business's, but instead opted for building the system at Lakeland. Why wuld they do that. Simple answer. The Federal Government had $10 Million or so available under the Gas Tax, and Community Infrastructure Funds, and in order to get their hands on this money the City had to come up with a **Green Project** so they created the Community Energy System. Once the City throws in their share of the cost we are looking at an expenditure of $15 Million dollars, more or less, that will have no long term benefits for the City.

Had the City cooked a deal with the pulp mill they could have heated the buildings much cheaper, however they wouldnt have been able to access the big money.

Same BS for the Boundry Road

Same BS for Airport Runway Expansion

These project are certainly good for short term employment, and provide huge dollars for contractors, and job security for the various levels of Government, but at the end of the day they are **dead beat** projects, and realistically the money should have been spend on more mundane, but necessary infrastructure like, roads, water, sewer, garbage, recreational facilities, pollution control, etc;

We have to get rid of this concept of Governments giving us money with strings attached, and try to get the money for necessary projects. After all this BS is built we will have to have a tax increase to look after it.

Have a nice day.

Bang on NMG!!

From: FLOOD RISK EVALUATION AND FLOOD CONTROL SOLUTIONS PHASE 1- FINAL REPORT
http://www.city.pg.bc.ca/city_services/emergency/icejam/doc/1%20Executive%20Summary.pdf

Page x - South Bank of Nechako River at Confluence – ($15.5 M)

1. Build dike on river side of River Road, providing internal drainage and reducing groundwater seepage.

2. Introduce land-use change north of River Road.

The map included shows the dike not at the edge of the river but aligned with River Road. My assumption all along has been that the drainage to reduce groundwater seepage was to be part of the road construction. It would be nice to know whether it was or was not. I really do not understand why we are kept in the dark. Almost as if the feds and province could not meet eye to eye on combining a flood mitigation project with a gateway connector program.

The land use change, of course, includes removing houses, salmon hatchery, Winton Global offices and Brinks operations on the north side of the road. With that part of the brinks operation gone, I wonder how viable the rest of the operation is in that location.

The City water well pump station also needs to be looked at I assume.

Some methods of dealing with seepage are discussed in this document

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_safety/flood/pdfs_word/aug03_dike_des_cons_guide.pdf

I believe we have no impervious layer to speak of, so the pressure relief wells could probably be built as an add-on now that the road is finished.

I can't figure out why Ospika has never had the half kilometer completed to Highway 16 in nearly 30-years and yet projects like this one get the go ahead....

Further to Eagleones' observation, how about Foothills Blvd. ending at 18th ave? I thought the whole idea was for Foothills to end up at Hwy. 16. This River Road project is indeed a project of questionable value to most of us.
metalman.

Politicians can't see past the next election. First job after being elected is to be re-elected. Sometimes some of these elected ninnies stumble. And voters have amnesia just before the polls open and vote for these ninnies again.

he City needs to diversify away from wood and pulp. Those industries show to be fragile at best. Lets see some optimism instead of the same old gang up on politicians.

Believe in the future of Prince George. Take a chance on something for crying out loud. A transportation hub is why we are here in the first place. The confluence of the two rivers.