Ding, ding, ding: it’s time for Bad reason, 4
(Important note: I just blogged a correction/ modification to this entry, here. Click on through and read!)
Reason #4?
- “The bridge’s heritage value would be destroyed in a retrofit because we’d have to steel-plate over the old bridge’s open lattice work, and this would turn the bridge ‘into a battle ship’.”
Er, wrong.
In fact, this is so wrong, it’s worthy of the L-word (lie). Out-and-out L-word.
The City – with Mayor Dean Fortin in the vanguard – has been telling people that refurbishing the bridge would destroy its heritage value because – according to the City’s Engineering Department – the refurbishment would require plating over (for the purposes of reinforcement) the open lattice-work of the structure.
However, there is an identical (*see update) Joseph Strauss-designed bascule bridge in San Francisco – which, at last reckoning, sits in as volatile a seismic zone as we do – that was fully restored, without the engineers and restorers in charge having to resort to clumsy steel “over-platings.” It’s the Fourth Street Bridge.
There are numerous other examples across the continent, and in no case did a retrofit require encasing the old structure in steel plates.
Therefore, it seems clear that if the city believes the bridge can’t be refurbished without destroying its heritage character, the city has been talking either to incompetents (people unqualified to take on the job) or to people who, because they have an agenda that doesn’t allow them to take refurbishment into consideration, want to see the old bridge replaced at all cost.
And believe me, dear Victoria city taxpayers, it will cost. Dearly.
Speaking of costing Victoria taxpayers dearly, city councillor Pam Madoff is interested in directing even more funds at MMM Group, the consulting firm managing the design and construction of the project, if the firm delivers the project on time and on budget.
Apparently these days project managers need to be enticed to deliver a $63 million project on time and on budget. The full Goldstream News Gazette article is linked to at: http://vibrantvictoria.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=107793#post107793
“And believe me, dear Victoria city taxpayers, it will cost. Dearly.”
Yes it will. Seems that Fortin et al are not really *interested* in preservation, but are following their own agenda.
What else is new…………
Suzanne Hertel’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle mentions that Joseph Strauss was already well-known before designing the Golden Gate Bridge: ‘before making his name with that national landmark, Joseph Strauss built his reputation with his Bascule Bridge Company.’
Victoria City Councillor Pamela Madoff mentioned cost and time overruns in the 2003 repair job on Strauss’ Fourth Street Bridge in San Francisco in her recent letter to the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition. That bridge was built in 1917.
Madoff’s reference to the Fourth Street Bridge was apparently meant to frighten preservationists into thinking that the same thing would very likely happen here in Victoria with the Johnson Street Bridge if the City of Victoria proceeded with saving it.
According to Herel, the cost before work started on the Fourth Street Bridge was supposed to be $17,000,000 US, and was to have taken 18 months.
I am not sure of the total costs and the time spent in the final analysis, but it should be borne in mind that the San Francisco project involved the complete dismantling of that bridge, and then putting it all back together again.
No one has ever suggested that such a dismantling, removal of all components to another site, and reassembly should be done here, in the happy event that we wisely finally decide to save the ‘Joseph Strauss Bridge’ or ‘Blue Bridge’ as some call it.
Even when one considers these problems, however, that is certainly a lot less than the $63,000,000 Can. estimated costs for a new replacement structure here, even taking into consideration inflation and the difference between the two currencies.
Joseph Strauss also did the engineering on the Burnside Bridge in Portland Oregon.
Between March and November 2002 they did a seismic retrofit on that bridge that cost $2,100,000 US.
Five years later they put in a new deck on the same bridge for $9,000,000 US.
Again, it is worth noting the relative savings these projects cost taxpayers in that country.
Thank God that philistine civic officials in Portland and San Francisco did not have the audacity to suggest tearing down those two bridges, as our lot want to do here.
In the final analysis, there is no compelling engineering evidence produced by the City of Victoria that suggests spending such a huge amount of money on demolishing and replacing the Johnson Street Bridge.
Until such time as they produce such compelling evidence of danger, the prudent course of action in terms of fiscal responsibility is to save the ‘Joseph Strauss Bridge.’
Here is the Wikipedia entry on Joseph Strauss for future reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Strauss_(engineer)
G. P. M. Hartnell, Editor
Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Weblog (‘CCC BLOG’)
Thanks for the comments, Mike, Jane, and Gregory. Yes, there are a lot of issues that the city is “plating” over, and we really need to keep asking questions. It’s our money they’re wanting to spend.
Thanks for the pointer to the article, Mike. I agree that it’s …um, unusual?, is that the right word?, to offer a bonus for completing a project on time. Instead, the contractor should pay a penalty if the project isn’t completed in time.
[...] Bridge DOT org (on the internet, everything moves so quickly and seems old so quickly), I posted Bad Reason #4 (July 28/09). It’s a post I almost (but not quite) regret writing: I felt highly emotionally [...]
It is absolutely astounding to me that the Times Colonist and CFAX are so one sided on the Johnson Street Bridge issue that they fail to properly report or investigate. I have to ask myself what is really going on? The media is failing me, the history of this city, their audience and the taxpayers of Victoria on this issue. We have a city council that is arrogant, deceitful and manipulators of the system as well as being good at exaggeration. The Office of Mayor, won by Dean Fortin with only a scant 26.93% voter turnout, was not won on the issue of the bridge, an issue that was not on the voters radar, all be it, possibly a backroom idea that Dean Fortin had during his run up to the election and not telling the voters knowing he would not have been elected if he had. It is wonderful that Dean Fortin knows better than the taxpayers of Victoria and that when it comes to spending multi millions of dollars it is in the best interest not to engage the taxpayers, by any means possible, reference the Council meeting of August 27, democracy buried in procedure. I also find it amazing that a City Councilor had voted on this issue even though the Councilor does not live in Victoria and will not suffer the inevitable increase in property taxes.
The whole concept of replacing the Johnson Street Bridge has some pretty foul odors coming from it and no one wants to dig through the garbage to find out where it is coming from. Shame on the Victoria media ( Dean Fortin’s cheerleaders?). Shame on the City Council. (Monkey told to, monkey do.)
I would love to see protesting and marching in the streets of the city. Maybe then City Council might be inclined to listen before acting.
Written with sadness and disgust over this whole topic, I offer my opinions
Thanks for your comment, Bruce. I can fully understand your frustration and anger. For years – decades, practically – nothing happens, and now it does, but with such haste and ill-considered risk-taking that it makes me wonder whether adults are in charge.