CRAIGFLOWER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT UPDATE MAY 2014 (Budget & Management Section)

Traffic Management:

• No complaints received since the April COW report;

• Admirals Road now open from Island Highway to Gorge Road; signals at Island Highway/Admirals Road and Gorge Road/Admirals Road back to full operation; timing plan at Tillicum Road/Craigflower Road signal changed back to pre-construction timing plan;

• In the March 13th, 2012 staff report to the Committee of the Whole, staff recommended, and subsequently received Council approval of, the following:

  THAT truck traffic, the types of which are currently not allowed as indicated in the Town's current Truck Route Bylaw, No. 456, 2002, be temporarily allowed to use Island Highway as an optional route during the Craigflower Bridge construction period. (C-39-12)

Now that the bridge has re-opened to traffic, the Truck Route Bylaw was put back into effect for Island Highway traffic on Monday, May 5th, 2014. Signage has been reinstalled and an email sent to staff's contact for the trucking industry for the project. As well, the Town's Bylaw Officer will be sending a letter to the Island Equipment Owners Association for distribution to their membership stating that the bylaw is now back into effect. Enforcement will be starting May 19th, 2014.

Communications:

• Ongoing photo updates made to website;
• Staff received very few enquiries and complaints to date; vast majority of feedback from the public since opening has been very positive;
• Re-opening event took place on Saturday, April 26th, 2014; a special bridge feature, along with acknowledgement to local businesses, was placed in all 3 Black Press newspapers;
• Notices regarding the opening of the bridge placed in Times Colonist and Black Press newspapers. These included mention of the Town's Truck Route Bylaw being put back into effect on Island Highway;
• Interpretive signs now installed on the east and west side of deck on railings, as well as at the west end of the View Royal approach south of the bridge;
• Staff currently working with GWI and First Nations on the interpretive sign for the bridge deck.

BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:

An updated project status report has not been completed at the time of this report, therefore to summarize the current and anticipated status of the project budget for the View Royal portion of the project as of March 21st, 2014:

Remaining View Royal Funds: $174,641

*ICBC contributed $70,000 to the project in 2013 and will be contributing an additional $250,000 in 2014 for a total of $320,000. View Royal's portion is therefore $160,000. **The spent and projected expenditure includes a very small contingency of approximately 1½%. Staff does not anticipate any substantial risks in the remainder of the project as the majority of outstanding items are lump sum costs.

Staff estimates additional costs to the above spent/projected expenditures since March 21st, 2014 to be approximately $110,000 (the View Royal portion being $55,000), therefore:

Current Estimate of Remaining View Royal Funds: $119,641

Note that this additional amount should be covered in the 1½% contingency, however staff recommends that this remaining amount be kept in place in the capital budget until the final project invoice is received from Saanich (presumably September), and in the event that items requiring funding arise over the next few months with the initial opening of the bridge. No allowances are made in the 2014 operating budget for unforeseen expenditures.

SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS:

Not applicable to this report.

ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION:

Not applicable to this report.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receives the report entitled "Craigflower Bridge Replacement Project Update May 2014", dated May 8th, 2014, from the Superintendent of Engineering, for information.

SUBMITTED BY:

Deb Becelaere Superintendent of Engineering

REVIEWED BY:

John Rosenberg, ASct Director of Engineering