Victoria has failed in its bid to secure $42 million in infrastructure funding to offset the $63-million cost of replacing the Johnson Street Bridge, but the majority of council still seems intent on pushing ahead.

“It’s hugely disappointing,” said Mayor Dean Fortin of the news yesterday that the bridge project didn’t make the funding cut.

At a special meeting, council selected a rolling bascule design for a new bridge but stopped short of passing a resolution to proceed with the project. The design is inspired by the Canary Wharf bridge in London, England, and was the unanimous choice of the citizen’s advisory committee.

Councillors said the design has a “cool” factor and will allow people to walk through a pivot when the bridge lifts to allow boat traffic through.

Over the next two weeks, councillors said they will regroup and come up with questions they want answered.

“It’s a chance to step back and say, given that this is the number, is there any way we can do this more efficiently,” Fortin said.

Victoria was seeking two-thirds funding to replace the 85-year-old bridge, which engineers say will not withstand a significant earthquake. But the bridge wasn’t among 174 projects totalling $719 million approved for federal-provincial infrastructure funding. Projects that won funding were announced yesterday.

B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond said in an interview the Johnson Street Bridge project would have taken 20 per cent of available stimulus funding for B.C. The province was concerned about whether the Johnson Street Bridge could be completed by the March 2011 deadline set by the federal government, she said. “This is a very complicated project and it is a very large project and it was a very large request.”

The stimulus program attracted more than 400 applications worth more than $1 billion, she said. “It isn’t possible to do all of these projects.”

Fortin said it’s unfortunate the senior levels of government didn’t recognize the bridge’s regional significance.

“It’s disappointing to hear that senior levels of government feel that the taxpayers of Victoria should have to foot [the bill for the] entire bridge that serves the whole capital region.”

Fortin said he was confident the city would have met the federally imposed deadlines.

To be eligible for $42 million in stimulus grants, the project must be completed by March 2011. The timeline was made even tighter because Fisheries and Oceans Canada allows work in the ocean only from July to February. So work in the water had to have started by November.

If no funding is forthcoming, council should re-examine its decision to replace the bridge and look at refurbishing options in more detail, said Coun. Geoff Young.

That might mean the loss of some advantages of a new bridge, such as maintaining traffic flow during refurbishment and improved approaches.

An assessment by consultants Delcan Corp. found the bridge is in need of extensive repairs or replacement. The consultants said refurbishing the Blue Bridge would cost between $25 million and $30 million and add 40 years of life, while a new bridge would cost $35 million to $40 million and likely last 100 years. The cost increases to $63 million when factors such as contingency and realignment of approaches are included.

Ross Crockford, a director of johnsonstreetbridge.org, a group concerned that inadequate consideration had been given to refurbishing the old bridge, said if the city presses ahead without senior government funding, the borrowing should be put to a referendum.

Locally, Langford was also turned down for funding for $32-million worth of work on the Spencer Road interchange. Langford did receive two-thirds funding through the Building Canada fund for its $13.3-million City Centre Park Sports Plex. Victoria received two-thirds funding for a $5-million steel watermain rehabilitation program.

bcleverley@tc.canwest.com

with a file from Richard Watts

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The provincial government announced today the 174 projects across the province that will receive joint infrastructure funding with the federal and municipal governments.

The Johnson Street bridge replacement did not get approved.

Victoria was seeking two-thirds funding to replace the 83-year-old bridge which engineers say will not withstand an earthquake of any significant magnitude.

A spokesman for the premier’s office said that Victoria’s request represented about 20 per cent of the available funding for the province and the decision was made to fund many projects throughout the region rather than one large one.

Projects on Vancouver Island that did get funding include:

• $4 million David Foster Arts Centre in Saanich

• $2.7 million upgrade to the Royal B.C. Museum First People’s gallery

• $1.8 million for upgrade of Archie Browning Sports Centre in Esquimalt

• $5 million for steel watermain in Victoria

• $7.6 million for sewage system in the Uplands in Oak Bay

• $5.6 million for Kinsol trestle bridge rehabilitation

• $13 million for improvements to the South Island Highway near Campbell River

• $10 million for Nanaimo airport runway extension

• $18 million for Campbell River airport runway extension

• $3.4 million for Highway 1 Cedar Road to Nanaimo River Road centre median

 A full list of other projects on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in B.C. can be seen here.

 The $719 million is comprised of $244 million from the federal government, $233 million from the B.C. government and the remainder from local governments. 

The funding is being delivered through two programs: the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund and the Communities Component of the Building Canada Fund.