The Bay Street bridge has been added to the Crystal Pool and Fire Station No. 1 as a third piece of Victoria infrastructure in dire need of millions of dollars in unbudgeted repairs.
An assessment has found that the Bay Street bridge, also known as the Point Ellice Bridge, is in fair to poor condition.
The two-lane steel bridge was built in 1956 on old piers that date back to 1902, says a staff report to be considered by Victoria councillors today. Even though some seismic retrofitting was carried out in 2001 to strengthen the bridge, sections of it are deteriorating and cracking.
Preliminary estimates peg repairs at between $11 million and $15 million, well above the $8 million budgeted in the city’s capital plan.
The region is already in the middle of two major bridge projects. Construction of a new Craigflower Bridge, connecting View Royal and Saanich, is underway and should be finished in spring 2014. It has a $12-million budget, plus another $4 million for approach roads. Foundation work has started for Victoria’s new Johnson Street Bridge, budgeted at $92.8 million and scheduled to be completed in late 2015.
In Victoria, other high-priority capital projects that are deemed unfunded or not sufficiently funded and need to be addressed within five years include:
• Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre, 2275 Quadra St. Staff estimate it would cost $6 million to replace mechanical and electrical systems, which would probably extend the facility’s life five to 10 years. It is estimated total replacement would cost $58 million.
• Fire Station No. 1, 1234 Yates St. Staff estimate costs at about $8 million to retrofit the building to upgraded seismic standards. At some point, major renovations would be required as the vehicle bays are not big enough for a modern fire truck. The fire hall could be replaced for about $18 million, excluding land or temporary relocation costs.
If external borrowing was used to finance all three projects, estimated property-tax increases would range from 2.02 per cent to 7.35 per cent — on top of the 3.25 per cent increase already approved by Victoria council.
Instead, city staff are recommending ways to finance the projects without additional tax hikes. They include reallocating money from other capital projects, borrowing from the city’s $13.3-million debt-reduction reserve and looking for outside funding such as grants and private partnerships.
Mayor Dean Fortin said he sees good news in the proposals to avoid further tax increases.
“We have three major capital challenges coming forward — Crystal Pool, the fire hall and the Bay Street bridge. Given that we don’t want to increase taxes more than 3.25 per cent and we won’t increase taxes related to borrowing, [the report says] here’s how we can do it,” Fortin said.
“So we can meet our fiscal sustainability targets; we can meet our 3.25 per cent tax increase targets ... and deal with these issues.”
