New Meaning to the term, Bridge Financing

Saturday, October 01, 2005 04:02 AM

It was, after all, only a matter of time before the Cameron Street Bridge gave its last gasp.

The Province gave us the bridge for a buck many years ago knowing full well at the time that the shelf life was very short.

We took the bridge for a buck, like a bunch of silly fools, even though City Hall must have known that one day, the municipal taxpayers, not the province, would have to pony up the money to repair the structure.

Well the rubber has hit the road, or the bridge decking in this case.

We've got a problem.

Cost of a new bridge is $19 Million without any bells and whistles, $24 million otherwise.

Close the bridge permanently and you have to find a way to get those logging and other heavy industry trucks through a section of the city that has no dangerous goods route. One tip over and the game is over and we may have some trouble convincing the people of the area that lives don’t add up to money.

Another case in point (and whether it in fact is even worth saving) is the Down town. Take a quick look at the arterial roads in the city, without Cameron Street Bridge is there any reason to go down town?

All of the traffic from the Hart will find it more to its liking to just keep heading south to where the down town is quickly becoming and to hell with the center of the city.

So is it an election issue? You bet.

Borrow another $20 million for a bridge and you will find that the City's credit card is getting quickly maxed out. It was all roses when we took Terason’s credit card over, another $ 9.4 million for underground heat down town and suddenly we have about $40 million of the $220 million that was our limit.

Without a Cameron Street Bridge, heavy industry, that pays a big buck in taxes, is going to go into a major complaint mode.

By the way, did I neglect to mention that we also will need to tap into that credit card to build that $19 million dollar facility up at UNBC, over to you folks at city hall?

I'm Meisner, and that is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Saturday, October 01, 2005 04:02 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: owl on October 1 2005 6:36 AM

So with all that money committed by the existing Council, it looks like the new Council will only be doing bookkeeping for a term or two before they get kicked out for doing nothing ..... or they will have to go back on promises .... or find other sources of funding for those projects, or grow the City by leaps and bounds.

Any other options?

Posted by: Chadermando on October 1 2005 6:05 PM

Option #1 the province invests in its suger dady the forest industry and ponys up the money for a comprehensive dangerous goods route that enhances the efficiency of the #1 industry in BC paying taxes to the BC government. Thus would kick start the whole northern economy and thus grow the local tax base.

Option #2 The current elected politicians opt to bankrupt the city by maxing out the credit limit and getting downgraded forcing local tax payers into an uncompetitive position via other cities and locations to do business in this province where transportation investments have already been made.

Option #3 is to consult with CANFOR and ask them what works best for them and let the elected officials figure it out from there. Hopefully it involves access to the downtown and is win win for everyone involved.

Ruining our harritage for some short run solution like replacing the existing Cameron Street bridge is the stupidest choice of them all. At least our only mayorial hopefull Dan Rodgers is on record as the lone councilor opposing that solution last time arround.

Dan whats going on?

Posted by: Opatcho on October 2 2005 10:58 AM

Prince George with a population of less then a 100 thousand and we already have four bridges. The city of Vancouvewr that had almost one million people is surrounded on three sides by water had only three bridges to get in or out of.
Dangerous goods has route from #16 east and that would be the old Caribou and across the Fraser bridge onto the By pass as it was intended. other traffic can use the Yellowhead up 1st Avenue Carny street onto 5th Avenue. Carny and 5th are badly in need of a clean up as it is.
Why should the City forever ask the pulpmills what they want. They are using our resources let them divy up there profits.I think we have community plan and lets stick by it

Posted by: Opatcho on October 3 2005 9:42 AM

One of the rules of defensive driving is when you get into your car and while your turning on the ignition is develope a picture in your mind as to where you plan to go and the route you will take. I think a lot of people disregard this knowledge and end up in traffic delays or an accident.
If you end up in traffic delay maybe we could leave a few minutes earlier or find another route.
Foothills bridge was a must a few years ago and today this route is not up to capacity. It also feeds onto 5th and 15th and up to Colledge Hights.
Remember it only takes 10 minutes to go from Foothills to 3rd and Victoria at four pm. The distance is less then three miles.
We have just come home from a trip to Vancouver and it give on a new meaning to traffic movement.

Posted by: pg-guy on October 4 2005 8:21 PM

It's time to get out of the bridge business. We have two major bridges already crossing the Nechako. We don't need another! I'd rather see my tax money spent on getting our roads back in order. Who cares about a damn bridge when the roads that lead to it and from it are broken down and beaten. Industrial users can get by with the John Hart Bridge. That's why it was expanded.