JOHNSON – October Hot Takes: bumps in the Overlanders bridge, pipeline talk

Overlanders Bridge

Just wait for the masses to realize that what at first seems to be a temporary construction solution, is actually permanent.

First, we spent over a month trying to cross the bridge on the two western lanes while they worked on the east side, then it was swapped around as expected so the work could be completed on the other two lanes.  The whole goal here was to replace the transition points between the concrete sections, as they had worn out.

Oddly, it was decided to replace three of these transitions with new ones and remove the six others … seemingly an odd engineering choice, but we are left to assume this was appropriate.  As anyone with a slight interest in such things knows, concrete likes to expand and contract depending on the time of year, and the amount of movement for structures like this can be measured in ‘inches’ of motion.  It seems odd to see them just pull a bunch of these out, but that’s far past my pay scale to comment on.  Just seems weird that engineering knowledge changed this much.

Moving on.

When the eastern two lanes were complete and we all dutifully moved over there to enjoy our long line morning and afternoon commutes, we could see that we were going to bounce over these new blacktopped transition points, and the rest of the lane away from the transitions were still the old blacktop finish.

I assumed that once the two western lanes transition work was done, one of those large blacktopping machines would show up and, and chew out and replace the entire four-lane deck, aside the actual transitions, giving us a nice new driving surface.

But no … the City instead said “Hold our beer.”

The two western lanes are now done …and they are the same as the eastern lanes … patches of new blacktop at the transition points only.  Nice messy jumps at every patch.

Apparently, this is what we are going to be driving on for the next 10 years.

Why?  Why are they not resurfacing the entire bridge?

One glance on the City FAQ website for the project, reads that the plan never was to resurface the bridge, but to just do these transitions.  The explanation involves not wanting to damage a new large sheet waterproof membrane laid down under these patches. Chopping up the blacktop again to resurface the deck would compromise the waterproof integrity of this membrane, so the patchy surface is what we get.

https://letstalk.kamloops.ca/capital-projects/overlandersbridge

“The project scope was limited to servicing the joints, which required the removal and replacement of some asphalt. The remaining asphalt is still in serviceable condition. Removing additional asphalt would compromise the waterproofing membrane, which would then need to be replaced.”

I recommend surfing this FAQ to answer any questions regarding the project.

That one quote “The remaining asphalt is still in serviceable condition” is ripe.  The surface is very close to the well known railroad track depressions where the tires run.

The Hot Take is: Soo … why didn’t they rethink the process and grind up the entire 2 lane surface along the full length of the bridge right at the start, then replace their transitions, then lay down the membrane, then resurface the entire thing, then rinse and repeat for the other two lanes?

On the singular possibly most used piece of city road infrastructure in Kamloops, they made a mess of it, leaving a mish-mash of new and old driving surfaces, that will wear out on different future time lines.  Nice. /s

Wait for the backlash when the general public finds out what they get to drive on.

I expect a future Council and future City staff to one day call what was done here “short sighted” or “mistaken,” and an expensive fix and resurfacing will again happen, closing two lanes down at a time all summer … more traffic headaches.

Alberta pipeline thru where?

The other day I listened live to CBC radio as Danielle Smith announced a new pipeline from Northern Alberta to the B.C. north-western coast.  I paid close attention as she announced discussions with First Nations groups in B.C. and Alberta, as well as making the application thru the federal government Building Canada Act via the newly announced Major Projects Office opened in, where else… Calgary.

Obviously, the announcement was a political one, so there were endless minutes of pointless sentences surrounding the value of the project, so it was hard to parse through all the rhetoric and see the whole announcement for what it really is.

A few clear things I noticed or could figure out.

– The absence of any discussions, or even any mention of the existence of the B.C. government.  Not one mention of talks with B.C. about a pipeline through our province. Not one.

– Any details of how Alberta was going to engage with First Nations groups in B.C. was also absent.

– No mention of any solid deal with any pipeline building private company, and not even the suggestion of a bid to tender process was mentioned, except to say that Alberta taxpayers were not going to foot the bill for the thing.

– Finally, no mention of any routing details that this pipe would take.

Soo … where are we?  What is she up to here?

This is a pure politics game, nothing more.  What she has designed here is a win/win for the Smith government.

She puts the feds on notice that she is putting the Building Canada Act and the Major Projects Office to good use, and is willing to force the feds to put in a pipeline in which no jurisdiction outside of Alberta wants.

–  If the feds say no, she wins as she can tell Albertans that “Canada is against Alberta being prosperous,” fueling the separation conversation.

– If the feds say yes, she can hang her hat on the achievement “look what I did” a political win heading towards the 2027 Alberta provincial election.

– If B.C. says no … as it’s highly unlikely that B.C. will benefit at all from the risk to our coastline or forests, Smith wins again, with a ‘blame B.C.’ rhetoric argument and we return to wine and other small item trade war … just when Canada is trying to improve and encourage interprovincial trade and commerce.

– If she gets past all of that and private pipeline builders don’t bite and state economic realities against the investment, she can pass it on to the federal government to pay for it and, if they refuse, the above cycle starts again.

At the end of the day, there is no political lose for Smith to announcing it in this way; it will always be someone else’s fault if it doesn’t work.

I’m not chiming either way in this column regarding the environmental appropriateness of this or other projects like this, for the simple reason of word count.  That’s a subject for another day.

That said, I will add that what we are talking about opening the door for an oil company to sell their own oil on the open market and making government pay for, or at least do the leg work to get them these profits.

If we’re gonna do that, I would rather be on the side practiced by Norway.  They own the land or seabed, and the oil under that, and do not release ownership to the oil companies.  Instead, they hire the oil companies to do the extraction work and get the oil to market, where Norway sells it.

The value of the Norwegian Pension Fund which receives this revenue is over US$1.9 trillion.

What are we doing here in Canada?

One more quick item

Announced Thursday, Mike O’Reilly announced his intention to run for mayor, albeit a year ahead.  Dieter Dudy is still considering his interest in the fight, as likely is Coun. Neustaeter, and possibly others.

This will be a short Hot Take for this one.

Dieter, Katie, even Arjun or any other well placed potential runner for the top job … just don’t.  We learned a powerful lesson around vote splitting last time, and look what happened.  We need to right that wrong first, on behalf of the good people of Kamloops, and put them above personal ambition.

Just get behind Mike this time, and send Hamer-Jackson packing.  If others run at all, we could end up with him again for four more years.

Do this.  EVERYONE else … get behind Mike and run for council for yourself.

With that many strong names running forcCouncil, some of the poorer performing or can’t avoid controversy, Johnny-come-lately council members will get weeded out, and work can get done.

What we will end up with is an experienced and focused group, determined to not endlessly rotate on name calling and lawsuits, but repairing the connection with voters and staff, and doing the job you’re hired to do.

Then next time around, take your shot for mayor.

This is a call for everyone to go for lunch together and decide to do this,   stop the vote split and end this charade.  We are all tired of this, and you bunch are our way out.

David Johnson is a Kamloops resident, community volunteer and self described maven of all things Canadian.