Federal-Provincial Agreement on Infrastructure Dollars
By 250 News
There just might be some cash available for a Cameron Street bridge, now that Victoria and the Federal Government have signed a new infrastructure agreement.
Prince George North MLA Pat Bell says the agreement calls for the two levels of government to provide about $102 million for the coming year. It also calls for 80% of those dollars to be spent in communities with populations under 250 thousand, so that means Prince George will be competing with the likes of Kelowna, Kamloops, Fort St, John , Terrace and Prince Rupert for a share of the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund.
Bell says the Cameron Street bridge is the type of project that might qualify for some of this funding as at least a portion of the available dollars can be used to support local roads. Bell adds though the bridge project is a costly one, and there aren’t a whole lot of dollars in this pot once all the other communities ask for a share. Bell would like to see Cameron Street Bridge replacement pushed to the top of the list.
As it stands now, the replacement of the Cameron Street Bridge is estimated to carry a price tag of about $22 million dollars. If the bridge can be built on the existing piers there are hopes that estimate could be reduced by a significant amount. That won’t be known until a consultant’s final report is presented to Prince George City Council which will likely happen by the end of the summer.
In the meantime, the intersection of 5th Avenue and the Bypass, along with 5th Avenue and Carney Street are bearing the load of heavy industrial and logging traffic. There have been concerns raised by the Prince George Trucking Association that for the big trucks, the two intersections are just accidents waiting to happen.
If there is no funding from the senior levels of government, the replacement of the Cameron Street bridge will remain on the City’s capital projects list as an item to be dealt with in 2008.
The province will also be working towards a new longer term agreement with Ottawa that would allow B.C. to tap into the $2.2 billion dollars announced in the Federal budget for the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund.
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In addition applications for this money are supposed to have a **Green Infrastructure** requirement, and our Mayor is trying to imply that having the Cameron St. Bridge closed has had a substantive enviromental impact on the City. If this is true, then why did they not repair the Bridge immediately., rather than **fool around** for 2 1/2 years. I would like to hear him explain what the impact is., because if it has anything to do with the vehicles using this bridge, they were moved to another location, but are still spewing out the same amount of exhaust.
It appears that we will try to come up with some hairbrained idea that would allow us to access this money, however if we do., then this money will be spent on a useless bridge rather than on some project that would really benefit this City.
Anyway I beleive that the intent all along has been to build a steel superstructure on the existing cement pillars for what was originally to cost 7 to 10 Million, but the number has now jumped to 12 Million, and you can rest assured that it will be higher before it is built.
The existing bridge can be repaired and up and running by year end for a cost of $724,000.00 and would be more that capable of handling the 8000 vehicles per day (High Number) that presently use it.
This is a good example for people to watch to see how your tax dollars are wasted.
Sit back and enjoy the show. The cost for the ticket to the show will be on your tax bill for the next 20 years.