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  #21  
Old Posted Nov 2, 2010, 9:08 PM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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Source: Dmajackson - Washmill Lake Underpass - October 30th, 2010



Thanks for the picture Dmajackson. I can imagine a 25,000 seat stadium on the other side of that underpass near the Halifax Mainland Commons. Where the trees and transmission tower are.
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  #22  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2010, 2:41 AM
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Burnside News Article

Quote:
Washmill delay raises concerns
Published on November 5th, 2010
Ken Partridge Bayers Lake

Staff at HRM’s Design and Construction division have confirmed that budget problems are pushing back the expected completion date for roadwork on the Washmill Lake Court extension under the Bicentennial Highway.

...
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  #23  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2010, 9:13 PM
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Update from earlier today;

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  #24  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2010, 11:45 PM
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Road Construction - Washmill Lake

Quote:
(Friday, December 17, 2010) - Commencing Monday, December 20, 2010, beginning at 9:00 am and continuing until Thursday, December 23 @ 6:00 pm work will be ongoing on Highway 102, at Washmill Lake Overpass (between Exit 1A (Exit to Highway 103) and Exit 2A (Exit to Lacewood)) for the opening of Washmill Lake Overpass and closure of the existing detours. This work shall be dependent on weather and other conditions that may apply.

...
Source: Halifax RM Press Release
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  #25  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2010, 11:55 PM
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From today;

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  #26  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2010, 6:39 PM
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This is a very attractive Over Pass, Falls second place to the Larry Uteck of course.
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  #27  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2010, 12:44 AM
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Is it an overpass or an underpass? I vote for the latter. It is better than the Uteck one in that no roundabouts have been imposed on the infrastructure as yet. However, it is inferior in that it looks terribly narrow.
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  #28  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2010, 1:15 AM
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It looks like there is no room for expansion. I'm not sure what the expectations of traffic levels for that street are though. It looks like it will only be 2 lanes right?
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  #29  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2010, 4:14 PM
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actually, i was walking there the other day and thought it looked like about three or four lanes, although it was dark
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  #30  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2010, 10:09 PM
macgregor macgregor is offline
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Originally Posted by Jstaleness View Post
It looks like there is no room for expansion. I'm not sure what the expectations of traffic levels for that street are though. It looks like it will only be 2 lanes right?
The Burnside news said it would be similar to the other bayers lake roads. 2+2.
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  #31  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 12:57 AM
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Council pushes ahead with controversial Bayers Lake underpass project

By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE City Hall Reporter
Tue, Jan 25 - 8:12 PM

Halifax regional council Tuesday moved a contentious road infrastructure plan forward despite the "calamity of errors" that led to the three-phase project being $5 million to $7 million over budget.

Regional council in a 17-4 recorded vote decided to support completion of the Washmill Lake Court underpass in the Bayers Lake business park.

A majority of councillors felt it would be "irresponsible" to pull the plug. The project is to provide a third entrance to and exit from the commercial district.

The park will be expanding during the next decade and the underpass is seen as a crucial element of that growth.

Halifax Regional Municipality is getting provincial and federal funds for the infrastructure job; the city's net contribution is about $3.8 million.

With the cost overrun, the project's bottom line is now estimated at $17 million, municipal staff told council.

Initial rock excavation estimates were off the mark and there were problems with pyritic slate at the construction site, which senior staff said helped drive up the cost.

Even those councillors who approved of the construction work proceeding said they had to hold their nose to vote yes.

"This has been a calamity of errors — we all know it," said veteran Coun. Steve Streatch (Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley). "If you want a scapegoat, then let's have a public lynching or fire somebody, but let's not make the project the scapegoat."

Council earlier Tuesday met in secret to discuss the Washmill Lake Court underpass. Staff and councillors told The Chronicle Herald no one was fired over the costly plan and the municipality, for now, has decided not to sue anyone from the private sector linked to the project.
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  #32  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 1:06 AM
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Will Wayne Anstey, city's top staffer, be fired for this?
Washmill underpass budget bungling throws City Hall into chaos.
Posted by Tim Bousquet on Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 6:03 PM

A major scandal is rocking Halifax City Hall. Some councillors want to fire Wayne Anstey, the city’s head bureaucrat. Councillors Gloria McCluskey and Mary Wile had a public screaming match Saturday at what was supposed to a staid and celebratory grand opening of the Canada Games Centre. Most important, council is left dealing with a staggering huge budget hole---$8 million added to an already huge $13 million---caused by a single bridge project that pits suburban development against downtown’s needs.
At issue is a mundanely titled project called the Washmill Lake Court underpass, Washmill Lake Court being what’s now a two-lane cul-de-sac between the Empire Imax Theatre and Old Navy in the Bayers Lake Industrial Park. The idea was to widen the roadway to four lanes and extend it under Highway 102; over on the other side it would hook up with a new section of Regency Park Drive and extend onto Main Avenue. Basically, the new underpass would connect the suburban apartment blocks of Clayton Park to the suburban big box paradise of BLIP.

The Washmill underpass is a economic stimulus project from 2009. (I’ll spare you the long and sordid political history of how this particular project rose to the top of the city’s economic stimulus list, but if you’re interested, I explained this sad tale in November, 2009, here.) What followed was a textbook example of How to fuck up a construction project and bankrupt the city.

HOW TO FUCK UP A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT AND BANKRUPT THE CITY
Step One: Perform a bogus cost estimate
As recently as March 31, a list of capital projects in HRM put the cost of the Washmill underpass at $5.8 million, a figure apparently pulled from someone’s ass. When it looked like the project would actually get some federal funding, though, a new number was pulled from someone else’s ass: $10 million. That’s the figure that was given to the feds for consideration for economic stimulus funding.

Under the rules of stimulus funding, a third of the money was to come from the federal government, a third from the provincial government and a third from the city but, crucially, all cost overruns are to be absorbed by the city alone.


click to enlarge

The Washmill underpass now leads directly into this stone wall.
The city guards itself against cost overruns by hiring a consultant to perform what’s called a “Class A estimate” of project costs. Instead of pulling a number out of someone's ass, the Class A estimate is supposed to take the task so seriously that it ensures final project costs will come within 10 percent of the estimate. In this instance, engineering firm SNC Lavalin Inc was awarded a $195,939 contract to design the underpass project, estimate the costs and oversee construction. Tellingly, even the Lavalin contract was $35,000 over anticipated costs.
None of the city paperwork I’ve been able to find details exactly what costs Lavalin projected for the entire project, and no city officials with that knowledge are returning my calls today, so we’ll just have to wait to find out. But we do know that the project was broken into three parts: Phase 1 would consist of the excavating required to build both the new extended Washmill Court, now to be called an “Avenue,” and some temporary bypass roads up on the Bihi---the zig-zag drivers have had to maneuver the last few months. Phase 2 was to build the bridges. Phase 3 would build the new Washmill Avenue.

Lavalin estimated that Phase 1 would cost $2,005,000, and city council OKed a tender for that amount to Brycon Construction Limited on March 2, 2010, adding the extra 10 percent into the budget as a precaution. But even the extra dough didn’t cover the actual costs of Phase 1, which was completed just shy of a million bucks over-budget plus 10 percent: $994,137 to be exact.

Step Two: Completely ignore potential environmental issues
Where’d the Phase 1 cost overrun come from? Explains paperwork given to council this week:

The increased cost for Phase 1 arises from both cost over-runs, as well as including work in Phase 1 that was originally intended to be carried out in Phase 2. The work originally intended to be completed in Phase 2 included removal and disposal of pyritic rock that was to be used to construct the subgrade of the detour road. After construction commenced, an application for the temporary use of this pyritic slate was submitted to N.S. Department of Environment but the application was denied. As a result, the slate was removed in Phase 1 and new rock had to be imported to construct the detour road. This resulted in an extra cost of $550,000. Pyritic rock is nothing new in Halifax---most every large construction project has to deal with it. It is a highly acidic slate, that once dug up poses run-off problems for adjoining properties and, as I understand it, for underlying aquifers. The rock is disposed of simply enough---you cart it off to an approved salt water infill project, in our case either the King’s Landing condo project in Dartmouth or Waterfront Development’s Mill Cove infill project.
The city, however, thought they could use the rock temporarily as a base for the Bihi detours, an idea nixed in a millisecond by the Department of Environment, whose spokespeople are presently digging up the file for me.

But on the federal stimulus funding application for Washmill, there’s a question: “f) Have all necessary environmental approvals been secured?” City staffer Phil Townsend, who filled out the application, dutifully Xed off the “n/a” column---”not applicable”---because who needs a silly environmental approval?

That explains $550,000 of the cost overrun for Phase 1; what about the other $444,137, which is by itself more than twice the $200,000 set aside for the 10 percent insurance? None of the paperwork explains it.

Step Three: Hide humungous cost overruns behind the Queen’s substantial, er, party
Things really got interesting for Phase 2, which was getting up and running in June, 2010. None of the public paperwork says anything about Lavalin’s projected cost for Phase 2, but on June 28, 2010, then-CAO Dan English approved a $8,129,590 tender award to Dexter Construction to do the work.


click to enlarge

The un-completed underpass is the target of graffiti artists.
According to normal city rules, any contract worth more than $500,000 has to be approved by city council, so what’s English doing approving an $8.1 million contract? Well, the city’s procurement policy does provide an exemption for the half-million dollar limit:
During the summer months (July and August) and for occasions when a regular Regional Council meeting has been cancelled or the regular schedule creates more than eight (8) business days between Council meetings, the CAO or his designate, may approve the award of contracts... Thing is, there was a city council meeting scheduled for the very next day, June 29. But, hey, we were all excited about the Queen’s visit, which was filling up the week with hoopla and lunches and whatnot, so to free up councillors' time, the June 29 meeting was cancelled. I have no idea who made that decision, but such decisions are typically made by a nebulous committee that includes mayor Peter Kelly and the CAO. I remember the announcement the previous week clearly, because councillor Gloria McCluskey turned to me and said, “I don’t want to see the Queen; I saw her enough the last time she was here.”
“I didn’t go to any of the events,” councillor Bill Karsten tells me. “I don’t think any of the councillors did---except for Steve Streatch; he went to a luncheon, I think.”

It’s not like the council didn’t have much to do. For example, an $8.1 million contract that would push the Washmill project past the $10 million budget---with Phase 3 still to come---is a really big deal. But more than that, all the other stuff on the June 29 meeting was moved to the following week. “We met from 9:30 in the morning until 9:58 at night,” recalls councillor Jackie Barkhouse, who sort of compulsively records such information.

One of things council did at that all-day July 6 council meeting was discuss Dan English's employment future. During a secret council session, English “retired,” collecting more than $300,000 in retirement bennies, councillor Sue Uteck told News 95.7 radio.

Regardless, for whatever reason, English was able to single-handedly, without council approval or even council knowledge, commit the city to spending $8.1 million and breaking council’s approved budget for Washmill.

Step Four: Don’t tell councillors anything until their backs are against the wall
It’s been over six months since the heavy doors at City Hall hit English’s departing backside, but throughout that period it never occurred to any city staffer to tell council that a moon-sized meteor was bearing down upon the city budget.

“The first I’ve heard of it was last week,” says councillor Dawn Sloane, echoing comments made by a half-dozen others.

It’s as if the Washmill project was simply set aside and forgotten about, until after Christmas. The equipment at the site is sitting empty, and graffiti is now scrawled on the walls of the underpass that leads directly to a stone wall.


click to enlarge

Equipment sits idle at the construction site.
But the economic stimulus funding has a deadline. Specifically, if the city doesn’t finish the project by March 31, then it loses the federal and provincial funding; that is, $6,666,667. Thankfully, so many of these stimulus projects have fallen behind schedule that the feds have agreed to roll back the completion date to October 31, but only if the various cities sign an application by next month. That’s apparently the only reason the entire can of worms is coming before council even now---because staff needs a signature.
And what about Phase 3? Well, again, there’s no telling what Lavalin projected the costs to be, as that’s evidently some sort of state secret. But staff says Phase 3 will cost an additional---I suggest you sit down before reading further---an additional $5-to-$7 million, bringing total Washmill project costs, initially Class A estimated at $10 million, to between $16 and $18 million.

So council is confronted with these options:
1. It can cancel the project outright, and thereby lose $6,666,667 in federal and provincial funding and eat the entire $11 million already spent to get an underpass to nowhere.
2. It can find another $5-to-7 million dollars laying around somewhere and get the job completed, and eat the potential $8 million in cost overruns.

Understand that council, having more or less reasonably dealt with a $30 million budget shortfall in the spring, was supposed to find another $13 million in cuts in the fall, a decision that was kicked back to January as council, ironically, fell over itself to find a few hundred million dollars for a convention centre. So, we’re now left with a $21 million budget shortfall, which will likely be compounded by a bigger hit in the April budget sessions.

In other words, we are in something resembling fiscal freefall.

I’ll have much more to say on this issue in coming days.
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  #33  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 1:58 AM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sdm View Post
Will Wayne Anstey, city's top staffer, be fired for this?
Washmill underpass budget bungling throws City Hall into chaos.
Posted by Tim Bousquet on Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 6:03 PM

.
.
.
Understand that council, having more or less reasonably dealt with a $30 million budget shortfall in the spring, was supposed to find another $13 million in cuts in the fall, a decision that was kicked back to January as council, ironically, fell over itself to find a few hundred million dollars for a convention centre. So, we’re now left with a $21 million budget shortfall, which will likely be compounded by a bigger hit in the April budget sessions.

In other words, we are in something resembling fiscal freefall.

I’ll have much more to say on this issue in coming days.
The statement about finding a few hundred million dollars for the convention centre indicates that most of the rest of this story is probably false also. Once again another sensational story by Tim Bousquet
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  #34  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 2:12 AM
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City council found a few hundred million for the convention centre? Fiscal freefall?

Can Halifax have some real journalists please?
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  #35  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 3:05 AM
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Lol, the people printing this should be the ones getting fired. Overruns aside, this is a valuable piece of infrastructure, esp. the densification inside the borders of CP.
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  #36  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 3:43 AM
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*Bangs my head against a brick wall over and over and over and over*
Get me out of here... I wonder if there are any videos of the women screaming haha.
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  #37  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 3:47 AM
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I'd love to see a fraction of the cost thrown at all these interchanges put into a bit of proper bike infrastructure near downtown. I'm not denying that some people will find use in this, but I really don't see how it's a $17-million urgent priority at this time. *ducks*
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  #38  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 4:08 AM
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I think that more people will use this then bike lanes downtown that most only use for half of the year.
Speaking of that, I hate people on bikes who think they are a car. I had a guy going up a hill on a bike REALLY SLOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE. I could not pass him and for some reason he had to bike in the middle for 500m so he could turn left at the top.
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  #39  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 5:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alps View Post
I'd love to see a fraction of the cost thrown at all these interchanges put into a bit of proper bike infrastructure near downtown. I'm not denying that some people will find use in this, but I really don't see how it's a $17-million urgent priority at this time. *ducks*
If its any consolation it was mentioned tonight this will have bike lanes included in the curb-curb width.

I think the road changes downtown are still planned for this year and those include bike lanes on Hollis and Lower Water.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DigitalNinja View Post
I think that more people will use this then bike lanes downtown that most only use for half of the year.
Speaking of that, I hate people on bikes who think they are a car. I had a guy going up a hill on a bike REALLY SLOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE. I could not pass him and for some reason he had to bike in the middle for 500m so he could turn left at the top.
You'd be surprised actually. I still see multiple cyclists (including myself) on the roads in Bedford in the middle of winter.

As for the latter part of your post that is called "defensive" driving and is acceptable under the law. If a cyclists wants to change lanes unfortunately vehicles never slow down to let them in so any oppurtunity to move over has to be taken by us two-wheelers. Depending on the speed of the cyclist and the road width up to 500m away from the turn might be necessairy for safety reasons. Biking in the centre of the lane is also acceptable if traffic is heavy and not safely passing the cyclist. The new laws coming into effect soon will help motorists be nicer to cyclists.
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  #40  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2011, 5:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alps View Post
I'm not denying that some people will find use in this, but I really don't see how it's a $17-million urgent priority at this time.
It's worth pointing out that this is designed to accommodate a large expansion of the poorly-designed Bayers Lake area. Will it even result in better traffic over the long term?

Is it any wonder that the downtown is doing poorly when the city is so heavily subsidizing areas like this? The peninsula is full of empty sites and HRM is paying to open up new land.
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