LARRY ZILINSKY: ‘Blue bridge fiasco … was put on the fast track way too fast by Victoria Council by saying they didn’t know the cutoff date for [federal] grants’

BRIDGE DECISION, OH, SO TYPICAL

When the blue bridge fiasco started it was going to cost x amount of dollars to fix it and about double that to replace it with a “state of the art” structure.

Now the cost has doubled and the bureaucrats explain it by now saying the original estimate would only give us an average bridge.  So typical!

One option hasn’t even been mentioned, which doesn’t surprise me, because no politicians have thought of it so it must not be viable, right?

There is a group that is trying to restore the historic roundhouse just up the road from the blue bridge.  So why does the train have to go across the bridge in the first place?

Why not stop the train at the roundhouse, turn the whole thing into a tourist attraction, and put at least some of the taxpayers’ money that’s saved by not needing a tressle and railroad bridge towards the restoring of the roundhouse?

Vic West benefits, the tourists benefit, the taxpayers benefit, and the bridge project is virtually cut in half.

It seems like a pretty viable option to me, but then I’m just Joe Citizen not a narrow-minded bureaucrat.

This thing was put on the fast track way too fast by the Victoria Council by saying they didn’t know the cutoff date for the grants was so close, so they passed it.  

Didn’t know?  These are the people who are spending our tax dollars.

So typical.

Larry Zilinsky

Saanich

 

CCC reprint: Victoria News, Friday, July 3, 2009, page A9