The City of Moose Jaw thinks it will cost $5.8 million to replace the Seventh Avenue Southwest Bridge, which is nearly double what engineering firm Stantec estimated.
Stantec conducted a re-evaluation of Moose Jaw’s bridges in 2017 and provided a report of its findings on May 30, 2018 to city hall. The municipality then released a portion of that document on Jan. 23, 2020 to Tim Avery and Jim Thorn, a day before they met with Mayor Fraser Tolmie, city manager Jim Puffalt and city clerk/solicitor Myron Gulka-Tiechko to discuss reopening the bridge.
David Chow, the families’ legal counsel, provided the Moose Jaw Express with the bridge re-evaluation report. He also provided documents that lay out the history of this issue, the families’ attempts to meet with municipal officials since April 9, 2019, and the slow response from city hall that forced the families to hire Chow in December.
City hall closed the bridge in 2015 after floodwaters and ice damaged the structure. This has forced the Averys and Thorns to reach their properties using a private road through the Valley View Centre complex that joins Seventh Avenue Southwest with Highway 2 south.
There is an urgency to reopen the bridge since the provincial government will close all access to the VVC property by July 31.
This article is part 7 in a series. Click here for part 1, here for part 2, here for part 3 and here for part 4, here for part 5 and here for part 6.
The cost from Stantec’s perspective
“Thorn and Avery made it clear in no uncertain terms at that meeting (of Jan. 24, 2020) that their intention was to have the city reopen the Seventh Avenue bridge to vehicular traffic,” Chow said, pointing out the families informed the municipal officials that Stantec’s report identified a cost of $300,300 to repair the bridge. An additional $135,000 would be required to upgrade the guardrails to protect pedestrians.
Furthermore, the report showed it would cost $2.97 million to replace the bridge, specifically, $1.2 million to demolish — Stantec suggested this happen by 2022 — and $1.77 million to replace the structure.
“City officials were not adequately familiar with the content of the report or the specific information relating to the Seventh Avenue Southwest Bridge at that time,” Chow continued.
Municipal officials committed to obtaining reliable estimates on the repair and replacement and committed to providing that information before a followup meeting scheduled for mid-March. The mayor later spoke with the province in mid-February about giving the families extra time to access their properties through VVC; the province provided no formal access extension.
The cost from city hall’s perspective
The two parties met by video conference on April 17, with new city engineer Bevan Harlton and MLA Greg Lawrence joining the meeting, documents show. The municipality provided no additional information beforehand, although Lawrence did provide material — a letter from the Ministry of Central Services — that the families had anticipated would come from the city.
City administration said it would not recommend to city council that the bridge be repaired or replaced, claiming the cost was more than double what the municipality’s engineering firm estimated, said Chow. Specifically, Harlton said city hall now estimated repairs to be $700,000 and replacement at $5.8 million.
“When pressed on the topic, he indicated that he had applied various upcharges to the Stantec report of 2017. When pressed further, the city engineer conceded that one of the upcharges was a 50-per-cent contingency,” Chow continued.
City officials directed Avery and Thorn to ask city council directly to reopen the bridge.
Chow later sought more detail from Gulka-Tiechko about the nearly 100-per-cent estimate increase. The two engaged in an email conversation, starting on April 18 and continuing on May 8, 9 and 13.
Burying the issue
The two residents applied to appear in front of council to request that the city reopen the bridge. However, council and city administration refused to put the topic on the public agenda for May 25. When the two residents appeared that evening, city administration buried their presentation in the non-public portion of the executive committee meeting.
“There (was) nothing sensitive or private about the submissions my clients provided to the City of Moose Jaw or what the city administration provided to the elected officials in advance of our appearance … ,” said Chow. “I have been critical of this executive committee process for years and I have previously expressed my concerns with certain members of the current council.”
Gulka-Tiechko informed Chow by email on May 26 that council approved a recommendation to have city administration prepare a report on the bridge. Council then officially approved that motion during the June 15 regular meeting; however, when city administration prepares the report, it will bring the document to the in-camera section of a future executive committee meeting for further discussion.
Whether this happens before the July 31 closure of the VVC property is unknown.
Stantec’s report
When Stantec produced its report, the document indicated the structure was 64 years old — it is now 66 years old — and was composed of five spans with a total length of 40.1 metres and an area of 383.4 square metres.
An in-depth investigation showed the bridge’s piles, posts, railing systems, embankments, and piers had cracks, splintering, instabilities, debris caught in the piers, and missing pieces, while the railing did not meet design standards. As a result, the suspected performance delivery of the entire structure was one load, although how heavy that load could be was not indicated.
The original load design and gross vehicle weight rating were both unknown, the report said. City hall completed a load rating status in 2007, which found the structure was not safe for non-permit vehicles. Stantec’s report indicated the rating for the bridge was seven tonnes, but city hall revised that to five tonnes in the past two years.
Stantec put the Seventh Avenue Southwest Bridge in the high-risk category — along with the Fourth Avenue Viaduct — due to its “extremely low load carrying capacity, low bridge condition index (of 59.61), and low sufficiency index (of 59.66).”
The bridge condition index is a single number assessment of a bridge’s condition based on its economic worth. The lower the number, the lower the structure’s risk rating; any rating over 40 is considered poor.
This series will continue.
