Winnipeg's Waverley Street Underpass Approved

sigh - It was inevitable, I guess.

This CBC article says the $155 million overpass project has been approved, and Mayor Brian Bowman tweeted his approval of the approval.

Of course, the project has its own Twitter account @WaverleyUNP - whether or not that is a joke account will be revealed eventually.

We shall see if the project actually comes in on budget and on time.

UPDATE: So far it's coming in under budget!

More on Winnipeg's Waverley Street Underpass

VIA's Canadian at the Waverley Street crossing

Winnipeg's planned $155 million Waverley Street underpass project hit a speed bump last week when the plan went before the Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works Committee (IRPWC) on Friday. I watched the meeting online. (read my previous post on the underpass)

The IRPWC Meeting

The meeting was chaired by Janice Lukes (my councillor, actually) and the other members of the committee are Shawn Dobson, Cindy Gilroy and Devi Sharma, all present for this meeting.

After a brief presentation on gravel roads, the main issue at hand, the underpass project, was addressed. There was one presenter.

Presentation

Ken Klassen, a Certified Engineering Technologist (a research professional at Red River College), gave a lengthy but informative presentation on the underpass and raised a lot of questions about the project. He ran over time several times and finally Councillor Lukes decided to let him continue until he was done.

Mr. Klassen had questions about the city's capital project approval process. He said that capital project investments should show clear benefits, and this project has not shown those benefits, at least not in any public release of information. The city's transportation master plan

He compared the proposed $155 million cost (possibly +20%) to the Kenaston and Plessis underpass projects:

• 2006 Kenaston underpass: $48 million, or $54 million in today's dollars
• Current Plessis underpass project: $87 million at the moment and increasing

Both of those projects are similar to the proposed Waverley project in my opinion - Steve

Mr. Klassen said that no cost/benefit analysis has been shown. He also commented on the untendered $12.3 engineering design contract.

He also pointed out that city projects constantly going over budget undermine the public's confidence in city planning.

City Staffers

City staff were present to answer the councillors' questions. I wrote their names down quickly but I looked them up in the minutes to get their names right:

• Ms. Watt, Senior Committee Clerk
• Mr. McNeil, Chief Administrative Officer
• Mr. Deane, Director of Public Works
• Mr. Neirinck, Acting Manager of Engineering, Public Works
• Mr. Chartier, Manager of Infrastructure Planning

I jotted down some quick points from the city staff:

• The city uses "asset management criteria" instead of a cost/benefit analysis. There is a point system involving cost versus tax benefit.
  Funding is secured from provincial and federal governments for their portions.
• It is "common practice" to give the detailed design contract to the preliminary design winner, and it is understood during the RFP process. I am not sure if it is explicitly stated in the RFP - Steve

The councillors had many questions about the cost/benefit analysis - the staff's response was that it is not done and not common in city planning.

Councillor Sharma asked why councillors were not being properly briefed; she argued that the March 24 2015 meeting was rushed and "not adequate". My favourite quote from her: "The process just stinks."

Chair suggested councillors can speak individually to administration officials. Coun. Sharma said this is inadequate and lacks the back and forth kind of discussion that a council meeting gives, when multiple councillors are present.

Councillor Dobson voiced a concern about the lack of updates from administration on major capital projects.

I noted that Councillor Lukes seemed very positive toward the city administration, and seemed to me to think the project is inevitable, given that funding is in place.

Motions

Finally a motion was made to forward the project to the city's Executive Policy Committee with a positive recommendation.

There were two "ayes" and two "nays" - a tie - so the motion was lost.

Immediately a motion was made to forward it with no recommendation. This passed.

The Executive Policy Committee

The city's Executive Policy Committee, a hand-picked subset of the full city council, passed the plan today after a presentation by Mr. Klassen and some discussion. I didn't watch this one.

Next Step

It goes to the full city council next week for final approval.

I still believe this project costs too much for the benefits it will deliver. The city has a lot of other projects on the go and we can't afford this.

See also:

• My previous post
• Metronews report on the meeting
• Winnipeg Free Press opinion on infrastructure funding

Winnipeg's Waverley Street Underpass Is A Go - Oh, Oh

Soon to be a thing of the past?

Despite opposition from councillor Russ Wyatt and others, Winnipeg's city council voted 13-3 to proceed with the Waverley Street Underpass project.

Currently, Waverley Street has a grade crossing with the busy two-track CN Rivers subdivision. The Waverley Underpass project page says about 30,000 vehicles use the crossing daily, with 35-40 daily train movements through the crossing. Personally I think that number (of train movements) is low.

The intent of the project is to replace the grade crossing with an underpass (road under the tracks) and widen nearby Taylor Avenue to four lanes west of Waverley, and make some modifications to intersections to increase capacity.

CN blocking the Waverley Street crossing

The total cost of the project is estimated to be $155 million, with a margin of error of -20% to +30%, meaning it could reach $200 million. The money for this project would come from all three levels of government, as well as an unspecified contribution from CN. They are requesting $45.875 million from the province and the federal government, and the city expects to pay $63 million.

I think it's interesting that there are two rather large sole-source contracts specified:

• Manitoba Hydro, up to $13 million plus over expenditures at the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer
• Dillon Consulting Ltd., up to $12.3 million plus over expenditures at the discretion of the Chief Administrative Officer

Dillon Consulting won the $1.012 preliminary design contract back in April 2014.

This is how it looks currently. Waverley runs north-south through the centre of the map.

Waverley and area - current

There are existing underpasses at left/west on Kenaston / highway 90 and at right/east on Pembina / highway 42.

One of the controversial aspects of this project is that Waverley is not a major road north of the CN tracks. Part of the project is to widen Taylor Avenue west of Waverley to make it 4 lanes all the way, and to improve Waverley north to Grant Avenue and improve the Waverley-Grant intersection to improve capacity.

This is the work that is proposed to be done:

Waverley and area - proposed

Personally I am concerned about the large cost of this project and the potential for higher costs. The Plessis Road underpass project, nearing completion, has grown from the initial $77 million budget to $87.5 million so far (13.6% over budget) and is a year late.

Given that a detailed design has not been completed, and this project seems to be on a rush schedule, I think the chances of the cost increasing above the forecast $155 million are high.

Given that the city's revenue is just about $1 billion/year, and our city debt is about $1 billion (having doubled in the last five years), I don't see how we can take this on, as well as the stage 2 rapid transitway. We need to rein in the spending... and maybe spend it to help divert all the raw sewage we are discharging into rivers.

But that's just my opinion.

More information:

• CBC article
• City project description