Simon Fraser Bridge Project to Get Financial Boost from Feds

Friday, October 12, 2007 10:01 AM

Simon Fraser Bridge twinning project to get financial boost from Ottawa.

Prince George, B.C. - Opinion 250 News has learned there will be an official announcement this afternoon of a significant Federal funding contribution to the twinning of the Simon Fraser Bridge.

It is anticipated the funding will be more than $10 million dollars and will be added to the provincial budget of $32.5 million.

A year ago, the Provincial government decided not to award the design- build contract for the bridge because the lowest bid came in some $15 million dollars over the set budget. The project was broken down into two parts, the design (which cost $1.18 million) and the construction. At the time, the province said breaking down the project into the two sections would open the field of competition and provide a reduced tender price.

The detailed design now indicates the true cost of building the bridge will be over $40 million. The Federal government, is providing that “top up funding” through the Mountain Pine Beetle Economic Development and Infrastructure fund.

The full details will be released this afternoon at a news conference in Prince George.

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Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 10:01 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on October 12 2007 10:36 AM

Election fever in the air????

Posted by: lunarguy on October 12 2007 10:55 AM

All this money for something we don't really need. All they have to do is move the weigh scale from its present location to the new location that was announced and the majority of the traffic that triggers the delays will not be trying to cross the highway any more and causing the delays.

Posted by: diplomat on October 12 2007 11:10 AM

"All this money for something we don't really need."

When you say "we" who is of that opinion in addition to you?

I say I need it and I want it and I am glad that it is being constructed!

Great news that some of our federal tax dollars are coming back here to assist in the project!

Healthcare and infrastructure should be a top priorities, next debt retirement.

Are you posting from Kamloops and you don't want Prince George to have anything so they can get it there?

Just wondering...

(For those who don't know Kamloops is known as Seattle North, because of the abundance of 4 and 6-lane highways and bridges, overpasses, underpasses, pedestrian overpasses, freeways....etc).

Posted by: owl on October 12 2007 11:15 AM

I think we should clog up all the highways so that more cargo will be transported by rail.

;-)

I am wondering when the old bridge will require a major overhaul before it too collapses like the bridge in the USA recently did.

Hopefully they will also get rid of that camouflage paint pattern when they build the new section. We could have yellow for the southbound lanes and pink for the northbound lanes ....

;-)

Posted by: owl on October 12 2007 11:21 AM

I think we should start compiling a list of things we don't really need, find out how much we can get for selling those things, and how much we can save by not operating them?

Posted by: lunarguy on October 12 2007 11:48 AM

My comment should have been not so much what we need but rather than looking at the cause of the delays and fixing that we are doing a solution to a problem that isn't a problem if the true cause of the delays was looked at.
The thing is though, this has more vote appeal !

Posted by: darkken on October 12 2007 2:46 PM

If they are going to twin the Simon Fraser Bridge (and good that they are doing so), the next thing to look at is 4 laning 97 to the airport....otherwise you are moving the problem down 500 yards to the Industrial Way interchange, which is a cause of bottlenecking now as well as the bridge

Posted by: owl on October 12 2007 6:17 PM

I believe the 4 laning will be done shortly, if not in time to coordinate with the bridge opening in 2009. That would then also include the relocation of the weight scale.

The interesting thing as I see it will be how far south the scale will actually be located. I am assuming it would be as far south as Red Rock to provide a wide range of future river crossing options.

Posted by: diplomat on October 13 2007 8:43 AM

"I am wondering when the old bridge will require a major overhaul before it too collapses like the bridge in the USA recently did."

Not much if anything is being said about that collapse anymore, but it is fact that concrete and steel work was being done on that bridge and traffic was restricted to one lane in at least one direction.

The collapse may have been a result of weakening one of the structure's steel supports or connecting links at one end.

Posted by: metalman on October 13 2007 3:03 PM

The twinning is a good idea, and is obviously needed. What bugs me is the furor that was raised about the Indian garbage dump at one end of the bridge. The crap they are digging up is crap the Indians threw away, why does it have value now, if it meant nothing to them then? It is not archeology, it is rooting around in an old garbage heap. Pave it.
metalman.