Maybe we will get a new bridge when the study for the dangerous goods route is decided on!
Ya right.

If we could create an Olympic venue on the other side of the river (perhaps hockey skate luge or something) we'd end up with the most impressive bridge ever seen but sadly, Olympic money is reserved for the southern regions of this province. As per usual we are left out in the cold.

Its time we shut down 1st and 5th avenues as truck routes. There is Queensway and loads from the east can use the Old Cariboo highway and come across the Fraser bridge. If its logs we are worried about the logging companies can aford the extra cost.

Why should we as tax payers forever subsidize industry. When we go shopping we dont take the shortest route we take the safest. Or do we? Or is there the attitude, thats what I want and I should have it? Or will our childish ideas be with us forever?

Yeah Kimbo: This is the first time I have read publicly that "it's time we shut down 1st and 5th avenues as truck routes." This would open up the river front to downtown and perhaps we could ago back to having parkland there!

Realist,

lets start a petition to get he cutbanks used as the official 2010 downhill and super G venue....LOL
We ski on it in summer us PG'ers, so why not an olympic site in winter.
If the skiers carry too much speed at the bottom, they can just glide across pulpmill Rd, and out onto the nechako icepack till they stop.
You and I can set up a beer garden at the bottom and reap the rewards of beer sales...But we have to sell just local brews from the Pacific brewery keeping it on a local them ya know...lol

Marty,

I like the way you think with this plan we could likely get funding for a ten lane, draw bridge shaped in the Olympic logo style funded by the Federal and Provincial governments in partnership with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler combined. Boy would we be on the map!!! Unfortunately, due to the city council's stratagy of doing studies until their civic contracts run out and a new election can insulate them from appearing to have made a decison, this would not be completed until 2011!!

The silence from our dynamic duo Hill & Harris regarding the bridge matter is deafening!

It truly looks as if we have NO representation from our ridings at all in Ottawa!

Gheee, one would hate to think that it will take a deadly accident involving a logging truck to wake up these two MPs who are conspicuous by their total non-involvement in this more than urgent matter.

The Mayor has some agenda, but he puts on a blank stare when interviewed about this bridge issue that won him the last election.

That is the impression I keep getting, anyways.

Their seems to be plenty of money and interest in Ottawa to wage some nebulous imperialistic war in a far away country that has a millennium tradition of tribalism and sheikdoms and no cultural desire for a western style democracy.

So how come we can't get our hands on some funding for a much needed bridge repair?????

Diplomat,

you think to hard my friend....maybe open a samll HOOTERS wings outlet beside our beer stand, and you too can reap the rewards of the cutbanks skill hill.
All we need to do now is contact the Olympic commitee and get the winter games bumped to 2011 while they complete the studies on how to build the olympic ring shaped bridge.

And realist needs to figure out how the cars actually get off a bridge that is shaped in a continuous circle.

Maybe we can hire Don M to do a study on getting cars off a circle for the city???

Right on, Marty! Let us hire the Monty Python gang to run the local "show" for a while!

Diplomat. Harris and Hill do not get involved in this matter because it is a Municipality problem. You already have the Foothills bridge, and the John Hart Bridge (Twinned) Costing in excess of 100 Million dollars built by the Provincial and Federal Governments.

When the Foothlls bridge was built it was the intention of the Provincial Government to close the Cameron St. Bridge because in their opinion it was not needed. The City wanted the bridge and therefore they got it from the Provincial Government for $1.00 (GET IT) $1.00. One of the conditions attached to the City taking responsibility for this bridge was that they would be responsible for maintenance.

The City is now trying to approach the Feds and the Province for funding for a new bridge to replace the Cameron St. Bridge, rather than spend $750,000.00 on maintenence on the Cameron St. Bridge and get it back into full service.

I am sure that the Provincial Government feels that two Major bridges across the Nechako River to service a City of 77,000 people is more than sufficient and that there is no need for a NEW third bridge. Especially at a cost of 22 million dollars. This money could be better spent on Highway 16 West, and 97 South and other areas.

If no new bridge is built then the Province will probably share the cost (or pay it all) to fix the problem at 5th and the bypass.

The simple solution to the problem is for the City to get off their collective butts and repair the Cameron St. Bridge for the $750,000.00 this will give us back the one way option for both passenger and heavy trucks. Will solve the traffic problem and get things back on track by spring. We could visit the situation again in 10 years time, and reassess the need for a new bridge.

It is beyond my comprehension why they do not do this. Everyone with a smidgen of intelligence knows that if this was the only bridge across the Nechako it would have been repaired and up and running 8 Months ago.

Most people in this town are being duped by the City with their smoke and mirror mentality, and cant seem to grasp the most simple concepts and solve the most simple problems.

When do you suppose that people will wake up to the fact that they are continually being duped.

This whole bridge fiasco is a charade and even Ben in playing the game. If Frank Blue the Transportation Manager says that the Bridge can be repaired for $750,000.00 then what is the problem.

A tad off topic, but I want to know what industry Kimbo is in that does not get any money from logging?
Oh - and please explain how making safe roads is "subsidizing the industry"? I prefer to look at is as "subsidizing your safety" while you go shopping, because the trucks are going to be there whether you like them or not...

Sheeeeeeeeeeit! Now you all gettin creative.

Yes getting off a circlular road will be difficult but, think of it as an opportunity. We open a drive through and have a captive audience who must buy our products to survive. The beauty of the neocon ideology is that your greed and money gathering need not be encumbered with such trivial details as morals or ethics. See, problem spun into asset just like our provincial leaders in Victoria have taught us to think.

Hopefully Elaine does not blast me for writing off topic of the original subject.

But i just have to say to Realist... you hit the nail on the head of this buddy.
I am sure that is exactly how our Premiere and his flunkies see it....LOL

Hopefully Elaine does not blast me for writing off topic of the original subject.

But i just have to say to Realist... you hit the nail on the head of this buddy.
I am sure that is exactly how our Premiere and his flunkies see it....LOL

Pal, I know what you are getting at, but you yourself state that rather than repair the bridge the City is now going after Federal & Provincial funding: That is precisely where Hill & Harris enter into the picture, of course.

"If Frank Blue the Transportation Manager says that the Bridge can be repaired for $750,000.00 then what is the problem."

Obviously, he didn't say that with the Mayor's blessing and he is probably regretting that he ever said it.

Why does the City have a Transportation Manager when nobody pays attention to his professional assessment and proposal?

The stalling on the whole issue is continuing since the bridge matter (after an agonizing time consuming study) is not scheduled to come before city council again until late this year.

By then inclement weather will be used as an excuse to keep the thing on ice for another 6 months for sure.

If no federal and provincial funding is forthcoming there are only two options: a) keep it closed permanently or b) get it repaired immediately at the cost of $750,000.

The repairs could be in the final stage of completion already had it not been for all the brainy dithering and diddling.

This endless dithering has served one useful purpose already, though. It has exposed to all who have eyes to see how little common sense exists in certain quarters and how very little we can do to make ourselves heard and listened to.

Will said Diplomat.

"because the trucks are going to be there whether you like them or not"...from Interceptor. Of course, they need to be moving but not in the centre of the City. There are lots of taxpayers that are not beholden to the logging industry that have kept this town going probably long before you were borne. Give it a rest and look to all the citizens and school children of the City. Big logging trucks have no place in the centre of the City. The town was here before the logging trucks were, enough already. I respect logging truck drivers, they don't want to be slowed down by stop lights and stopping and starting and worrying about school children, they just want to do their job. They are very smart people and should not be subjected to such nonsense as having to slow down, stop, and start up again, give them a break as well as the taxpayers who have sustained the tax base for so longl.

The stoping and starting part is a real problem. lol

We have not seen the worst yet.
Come winter when logging really goes into high gear, and the roads are all iced up, then we have problems.
Summer is not a concern to me having truck traffic roll through town.
But it will be great fun when they have to try to start off on 5th ave facing uphill on a sheet of ice.
Can you say spun out trucks blocking traffic?