By Frank Stanford, CFAX News, March 14, 2012
Ben favours a simpler, more functional design for the new Johnson Street Bridge to limit current and future cost overruns
At least one member of Victoria Council says he will urge his colleagues to kill the architectural design of the Johnson Street Bridge replacement.
Ben Isitt says the 15.8 million dollars in additional cost estimates announced yesterday is proof the city has planned too ambitious a project.
“But what I hope a majority of Councillors will now favour is kind of opting for function over form, and I guess stepping back from that idea that … this bridge has to be a work of art.”
Isitt says there are examples of lift bridges that work all over the world, and Victoria should adopt an “off the shelf” design.
Mayor Dean Fortin disagrees. He says simplifying the design at this point would not save money.
“The only way you could save money is to build less of a bridge, but the difficulty with that is if you build a bridge with one less traffic lane, or you build a bridge without a pedestrian walkway or without the bike lanes or multi-use trail then you lose this 37.5 million dollars you just got from the federal government.”
Fortin was speaking on the Murray Langdon show on C-FAX this morning.
