Victoria Quay bridge repairs were completed on time and within budget, according to City of Port Alberni CAO Tim Pley.
“Invoices aren’t all in but we’re confident that all the costs are coming in as anticipated,” said Pley.
According to director of finance Cathy Rothwell, the city had budgeted $100,000 for the bridge out of its capital budget— $2,800 of that went towards a bridge inspection. The repairs were completed by K&G Installations.
Despite slightly more repairs than anticipated, the bridge was completed on time.
“The scope of the work increased,” said Pley, adding that small additional works aren’t uncommon in similar projects.
“We found that when we got underneath the bridge we had to put in more shims than we had anticipated and we found more cracks —some of the boards were larger than we anticipated—so we used more fill material,” said Pley.
The bridge repairs took two weeks and involved an epoxy being used to seal cracks in the bridge deck, as well as adding metal shims between metal support beams and the deck. The gap between the deck and the support beams was the cause of the cracks.
According to Pley, spending $100,000 will delay the bridge’s eventual replacement—estimated at $2.5-3 million.
“There’s good value in spending the $100,000 now and prolonging the life of the bridge,” he said, but noted that more work will have to be done in later years to keep that 20-year lifespan.
“In about five years we’ll have to replace some of the pilings.”
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