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Commuters cross a heavy steel plate that had been bolted over a defective expansion joint in the eastbound lanes of the Bennett Bridge on July 9. (Photo Joe Fries)
Almost six months after an expansion joint on the new Bennett Bridge prematurely wore out, the province’s Ministry of Transportation still does not know what caused the problem.
Maintenance workers discovered the faulty joint on July 8, about 14 months after the bridge opened. Traffic was affected as it took close to a month for Protrans WRB Bridge, the company responsible for operating and maintaining the bridge, to replace it.
The joints were originally expected to last between five and 10 years. Under the bridge’s public-private-partnership arrangement, Protrans is responsible for all maintenance costs until 2038, at which point responsibility for the bridge returns to the province.
At the time the joint was replaced, the Ministry of Transportation said engineers would be reviewing the problem to see if a design change was needed.
However, ministry officials “haven’t seen a final conclusion yet,” spokesman Jeff Knight said this morning. “The manufacturer was brought in by the concessionaire for the bridge [Protrans] and we still haven’t heard a conclusion yet.”
adrian@kelowna.com
2 Responses to “Still no word on cause of faulty joint on Bennett Bridge”
Tags: Bennett Bridge, Kelowna, Ministry of Transportation, protrans
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“Under the bridge’s public-private-partnership arrangement, Protrans is responsible for all maintenance costs until 2038,”
They may have to fix it, but we the people are paying for it.
The $144M photo-op price tag was just that, a photo op. The real cost is $20M for 30 years to a total of $600M.
Only in “P3 land” does $144M = $600M.
…..yes, of course there are yearly up keep costs, but $456M for 30years is a year is just bad economics.
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@ matthew
Of course you are no doubt one of the thousands that constantly complained about the traffic back-ups crossing the lake on the old bridge. I’m sure many can remember their thinking “when is this damn government ever going to build a new bridge”.
Funny how all these things on our “wish lists” cost money. Let’s pick on the new runway at the arport…waste of money as I haven’t used it once!
Please continue discussion on the forum: link