The Johnson Street bridge replacement project kicked off with a ceremonial turning of crushed rock and sand Friday, but the contractor charged with bringing the new bridge to life has been hard at work for months ensuring the massive project runs without a hitch.
With a slew of major projects slated for the region over the next several years, PCL Constructors Westcoast has been working “behind the scenes” locking down subcontractors to ensure when they need the boots on the ground they will have them.
“We’re fortunate to be first out of the gate,” said Sean Brock, vice-president of PCL Constructors Westcoast. “There are an awful lot of projects coming on the Island over the next couple of years, so we are lucky to be out of the gate.”
Brock said with school seismic upgrades, hospital construction and other major projects in the pipeline, it is going to become very difficult to find skilled trades down the line.
“We have our subtrades tied down now,” he said, noting some of them won’t be on site for another 12 to 18 months. “It would cost us extra if we waited.”
And ensuring the trades will be in place over the 21Ú2 years it will take to build the $92.8-million bridge is key in ensuring the economic impact of the construction project hits its own targets.
The project, which will see as many as 200 people working on it at any given time, is expected to create 900 jobs and $500 million in local economic impact, according to federal government representative Ron Cannan, MP for Kelowna-Lake Country.
The project has already announced some of that spin-off will hit companies with Island ties. Among them are Hemmera, which has a Victoria office, providing environmental consulting services; Focus Surveying has a Victoria office; Island Traffic Services is Island based; Construction Drilling Inc. is headquartered in Duncan. PCL has confirmed the concrete supply will come from Vancouver Island and the road work will also be an Island company.
PCL has also moved a team of managers to Victoria for the life of the project and hired others from the local talent pool.
“We are willing to invest in infrastructure that sets up the conditions for business, residents and investment to happen,” said Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin. “I’m excited to actually see it on the ground — to see the jobs being created, the local trades being hired.”
During Friday’s ceremony, Fortin said the project represents the single most important infrastructure project undertaken by the city to date.
Robert Jawl, president of the Urban Development Institute Capital Region, said the economic impact goes beyond the hiring of trades and other services.
“It broadly opens some exciting opportunities at both the east and west end of the bridge as it relates to both the public realm, improved traffic circulation and facilitation of new opportunities for development,” Jawl said.
“There’s been an immediate reaction with proposed projects for the Northern Junk complex and Janion restoration. I think both of those play in nicely with some of the new vitality that should come to the area, all of which I think is in part stimulated by the new bridge construction.”
Brock said that’s fairly typical with a large project like this.
“Generally, they bring so much other development,” he said. “In fact, some of the properties we were hoping to use for some laydown [of material and equipment] we can’t because developers already want to get started.”
The first real signs of construction of the new bridge will be seen in June when two temporary trestles are built on both sides to support cranes and equipment to build the bridge.
The existing bridge will remain open to pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, and marine traffic until the new bridge opens in late 2015.
