Underpass Overpasses Budget

Monday, September 18, 2006 04:00 AM

The City of Prince George is having to do a re-think on the construction of a pedestrian underpass that would cross underneath Highway 16 between the subdivision that is to the left of the highway as you see it in the above photo, to a point on the right near Carrie Jane Grey Park.

The City budgeted $600 thousand dollars for the project and received $240 thousand dollars of that amount from the Province. So the item went out to tender.

Big Surprise.

The lowest bid for the job has come in well over $1 million dollars, including taxes.

The situation presents some new challenges for the City.

The provincial grant has to be used by the end of the Province’s fiscal year, which is March 31^st of 2007. If the money isn’t used by that time, the grant will be lost.

Construction time is running short.

The City could ask the low bidder to do a review and revise the amount. But Transportation Manager Frank Blues says if a revision calls for more than a 15% reduction in price, the other bidders would have to be given the opportunity to submit revisions. In this case, the revised bid would have to slice at least 40% off the total.

Blues says they are still trying to understand how the estimate and the bids could be so far apart. “The estimate was put together by a local engineer who knows the area, knows the climate, knows the construction demands, so we are still trying to understand how there could be such a large gap.”

Blues says canceling the project is not something they want to do. The Province has already agreed to extend the deadline for completion of the project. Blues says other options include sending the whole thing out again for a new tender process, revise the scope of the project to bring it closer to budget or look at using internal staff to construct the underpass.

The Ministry of Transportation will have the final say on the project as it involves Highway 16 which falls under their jurisdiction.

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Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarguy on September 18 2006 8:02 AM

Just fix the roads we have at present so they stop ruining the suspension on our vehicles and then worry about more black top to maintain !

Posted by: Marty on September 18 2006 8:22 AM

Tax the gas stations an extra $50,000 each over the next 3 months, for charging too much for gas....that will pay for the added costs.
And I am sure the stations can afford it since they overcharge us so much.
Fuel even though it has to be trucked all the way to Barriere, is still only 93.0 there.
We have a refinery here, and still pay more.....sigh ***
So make the rich gas stations pay for it since we will all sit in construction zones waiting to get through, burning yet more gas, they will recoupe their money anyways.

Posted by: diplomat on September 18 2006 8:47 AM

"...or look at using internal staff to construct the underpass."

Go ahead, internal staff, show us what you can do and save us long-suffering taxpayers $400,000
dollars!

And yes, lunarguy, I agree. Take a look at Croft Road (between Cook Crescent and Killarney), it is a suspension busting stretch of cracked and patched over narrow street, and, lo and behold: a bus route, at the same time.

I am sure that overpass can be an improvement idea for the future, but how about dealing with the obvious problems first?

I sent a friendly email to BC Transit Headquarters asking them if they have minimum standards such as width and condition for the streets that buses use, also if they are aware of the totally deteriorated condition of Croft Road: NO REPLY, of course.

Posted by: diplomat on September 18 2006 10:44 AM

Lefty:"The people that run this town must love it when the only concerns of it's inhabitants is the condition of our roads. "

Might as well start somewhere, like the roads. They affect almost everyone, including trucks and buses.

Obviously the next big issue may well be the decision of the majority of the inhabitants to vote the whole lot of them out.

Posted by: lunarguy on September 18 2006 10:46 AM

If this is a pedestrian underpass then please lets build several across central first then, especially near the college and down by the Spruceland mall. In theory those would be a provincial responsibility as Central is provincial highway but for the sake of everyone just build it. Forget the twinning of the Simon Fraser bridge, once the weigh scale is moved the traffic jams by the bridge will be gone.

Posted by: Jethro on September 18 2006 7:05 PM

Er... what's wrong with a pedestrian OVERPASS.?

No hole in the ground (to fill up with water, ice and hobos) and an excellent location to hang civic banners.

Posted by: Rounder on September 19 2006 10:16 AM

An overpass? People in PG would be too lazy to walk up the stairs or a ramp to cross the highway. They would just continue to cross the road as they do now. An overpass would probably cost more to build (need more area on both sides for stairs/ramps, etc). An underpass would link the Heritage Trail nicely.