Underpass Cost, Over the Top

Monday, April 02, 2007 07:44 PM

The planned underpass that would have the Heritage River Trail continue under Highway 16, has once again come in over budget. (Photo courtesy City of Prince George Transportation )

The project calls for the Heritage River Trail to run under the four lanes of Highway 16 and link Strathcona with Carrie Jane Gray Park. The City of Prince George’s consultants pegged the project at a cost of $550 thousand dollars. The tenders have come in much higher.

Initially, the estimates came back more than twice the budgeted amount, so the project was tweaked, and was put out for tender again.

The bids are lower, but still $360 thousand dollars over the expected amount. That means the cost of the underpass has come in at approximately $910 thousand dollars.

Of that, the Province has agreed to pay $241,000, but there is still a shortfall of $360 thousand. Council has agreed to go ahead with the project taking $300 thousand dollars from the Capital Expenditure Reserve and $60 thousand from the Community Works Fund.

The project will have to be completed by July of this year to make sure it doesn’t conflict with the Highway 16 resurfacing projects slated for this summer. City staff hope to get some of the money back through grants from ICBC and senior levels of government. Any money from grants will be put back into the two funds used to finance the project.

Council has approved the extra funds, with Councilor Brian Skakun saying it is "Money well spent as it will increase the use of the River trails and improve safety."

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Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 07:44 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on April 2 2007 8:22 PM

About time this link gets done. Will make the trail system more fluid. There were never any signs warning motorists that pedestrians cross in that location.

Posted by: Smooth on April 2 2007 8:35 PM

$550,000 budgeted and an actual cost of $910,000 because people cant look both ways and wait a minute or two for a good time to cross is just ridiculous.

Smooth

Posted by: Harbinger on April 2 2007 8:55 PM

Maybe they can put shelves or layer the sides of the tunnel so the homeless can sleep there. Not being cruel, just practical. After all, it is shelter from the elements. And unless there a draught going thru there, it would be ideal if one were to be in a fix and be able to humble themselves.

Posted by: snappi on April 2 2007 9:43 PM

I have those same thoughts smooth and harbinger. I also see it as a great escape route. It would be allot cheaper to put another cross walk in or have people walk an extra block to the cross walk down by the Petro Can. What a waste of money.

Posted by: Chadermando on April 2 2007 10:30 PM

I've walked that trail before a few times and I'm always amazed how the ducks can live in the slough channel with all those engine parts, tires, and floating oil. I asked the city once about why they don't find a way to getting that ditch cleaned up, and they said it was too expensive. Now they want to spend a million dollars on a cross walk that will likely only facilitate the criminal eliment of 'the hood'.

A million dollars for a cross walk? I thought the big cut to city trails budget this year was to pay for the road marking trail on the side of the highway, but for a single crosswalk?

I think $1 million dollars could be far better allocated to matching EI work programs making it $2 million and then going towards some kind of organized trail buildout in parts of the city where it will be used for recreation and quality of life enhancement projects. IE $1 million could build an entire Cranbrook Hill crest trail system. Lots of updates that could be done to parks for a $1 million dollars IMO.

Posted by: owl on April 2 2007 10:55 PM

"I've walked that trail before a few times and I'm always amazed how the ducks can live in the slough channel with all those engine parts, tires, and floating oil. I asked the city once about why they don't find a way to getting that ditch cleaned up, and they said it was too expensive."

Bang on!!! I made a similar comment about the condition of that ditch with respect to the riparian zones and concern about water quality.

Any money spent on that underpass is a waste. It will be a problem area soon after it is opened and will eventually be shut down is my prediction.

Again, someone did not attend the forum on anti vandalism design in landscape �. Or they did not cover the use of underpasses. If the underpass was nice and wide, as in 40 or 50 feet, it might be a different story, but I doubt it is. Even then, in that location, it is building a place for a crime waiting to happen. Worse than an many underground parkades.

Posted by: hadenough on April 3 2007 4:22 AM

You have to wonder on what is going through the minds of city council.
First the mayor wants to cancell the bylaw for pawn shops,then he wants to build a million doller sidewalk,how many needles and how much garbage is this going to collect.
Please remember this come election time.

Posted by: hadenough on April 3 2007 4:28 AM

I wonder who is getting the bid?

Posted by: Mcfly on April 3 2007 7:29 AM

For anyone interested I will be renting out cots every nite starting around 9pm, they will be $9.95 per nite, hot dogs from my cart are $5 each, or 2 for $9.

Please come and support my underground business.
I need the money to pay my taxes, so city hall staff can take more holidays.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on April 3 2007 8:09 AM

I bet all them granola eaters will have to go in large groups to feel safe down there.

A good heart rate and sweat is OK, but a pounding heart and sinking of fear is different. HeeHee!

Posted by: snappi on April 3 2007 8:16 AM

I can most certainly say that I wouldn't be walking anywhere near the south side of 20th avenue at night to begin with. But I sure as hell wouldn't be going through any underpass filled with God knows what or whom.
I shudder to think it.

Posted by: heidi1555 on April 3 2007 8:54 AM

Eeeww yes I agree to all. The police will be sent there constantly to the "underworld". Prevention of this underpass could make things a tad safer anyway. This will just add to the dirtiness in that area of our city.

Posted by: diplomat on April 3 2007 9:22 AM

Think overpass, not underpass! If the city does not know what a pedestrian overpass looks like it can send somebody to Quesnel, where one can see an example close to the railway station.

Or, better yet, check out Kamloops!

Posted by: vocer on April 3 2007 10:07 AM

You beat me to it Diplomat. I would think a pedestian overpass walking bridge would be far less expensive. Might offend the bikers but with todays light weight bikes they could be carried. If there is a concern about children carrying bikes up a staircase then make it a curly ramp like the one in Quesnel. This underpass is ridiculous.

Posted by: Gofaster on April 3 2007 10:24 AM

Thinking overpass, would make sense, and in my opinion this city council has no idea what that is.

Posted by: Harbinger on April 3 2007 10:24 AM

Could put a security guard at the entrance. Security cameras. Real effective no loitering signs. Almost a million bucks? Is there one person responsible for this decision? Or a committee? These days when anything controversial is decided and problems arise from it, it everyone's fault AND it is no ones fault. Really good "out" these politicians have perfected. Have this million dollar "tunnelboggle" run by voters this coming election. Will the incumbents and the new candidates say where they stand in relation to the building of this while streets turn to crap? I will wait.

Posted by: scruffy on April 3 2007 10:37 AM

its at the bottom of a hill,put a traffic light there.

Posted by: Palopu on April 3 2007 11:23 AM

A flashing green light like they have at 5th and Harper, and on 15th at the Post Office would probably work just fine.

Supposdly as many as 70 people an hour cross Highway 16 at the spot where the underpass is going to go. I dont know where the City got this number but obviously it was used to get the ok to spend the money, because in fact you would never get 70 people per hour crossing this road. Maybe you would get a high number when kids are going or coming from school but other than that, not to many.
Went by there this morning and didnt see a soul for miles.

Posted by: owl on April 3 2007 1:17 PM

An overpass is a much more palatable solution if there is a problem. The paper today says that there is an average of 70 people crossing that road at that location every hour.

Can we get 5 people to sit there at different times to see if that is accurate? I just do not believe that. If the trail was promoted and a nice overpass built, then it might see something like that or more.

An overpass would be relatively simple to build in that area. Each side has considerable land available which would allow for a ramp to be built to get to the height of about 16 to 18 feet required. A ramp at 1:20 slope would be about 350 to 400 feet long. Plenty of space plus some.

An overpass would be no cheaper; in fact, could be more expensive, but a much safer and more pleasant option for the user. Of course, these days such an overpass would require a nice screen to protect people from using it as the favourite suicide spot and to prevent them from throwing river rock at vehicles below. But when properly designed from the start, rather than an afterthought, that could be good looking.

http://omahamidcenturymodern.blogsome.com/images/Copy%20of%202006%20Bridge%20NW%20close%20up.JPG

http://flickr.com/photos/mobikefed/236998335/in/photostream

screened overpass http://www.echonews.com/741/images/kadina_overpass.jpg

a nicer looking one http://flickr.com/photos/arlen/366674211

http://flickr.com/photos/jonk/13758783

Posted by: owl on April 3 2007 1:20 PM

oops .... I guess that is what happens when one gets busy with other things and posts without reading the latest posts ... but essentially have the same reaction to palopu's as far as the 70/hour goes.

Posted by: Harbinger on April 3 2007 4:16 PM

An overpass? Hardly. People plodding their lard-asses up and downstairs? No way. People are lazy. That is why they take short cuts. This exercise boggles the mind. Is this gonna be built after the CN/Multiplex TV is erected? We sure do have a lot of money at city hall. Too bad some of these millions can't be used to repair or replace some streets in this here town.

Posted by: jonnypg on April 3 2007 8:09 PM

New name for it! ...meth alley

Posted by: jonnypg on April 3 2007 8:15 PM

Or... Gateway to the hood!!!

Posted by: owl on April 4 2007 12:16 AM

Maybe we can make a ride out of it and charge money .... a skilift as a cable tansportation system .....

Posted by: Mcfly on April 4 2007 8:54 AM

How about a glass enclosed elevator at each end of the overpass?

And no, you will not be able to use the elevators if the overpass is on fire.