Pontoon project on last legs

Wayne Moore - Aug 10, 2009 CASTANET:

The fate of a proposed new floating breakwater and public pier is now in the hands of SNC Lavalin. The contractor responsible for building the WR Bennett Bridge and decommissioning all components of the old floating bridge, including the pontoons, had imposed a firm deadline of August 17 for the City of Kelowna to decide if it wanted to use the old pontoons as a public pier. Significant changes to the design of the structure around the kelowna Yacht Club means a second Alternative Approval Process will be required. The earliest council could make a decision is September 21. Infrastructure Planning Director, Randy Cleveland, laid out the bad news before council Monday, just three days after a first AAP was unsucessful. The city was under pressure to meet the timeline imposed by SNC Lavalin, and initiated the first AAP while engineering work was being done on the pontoons. Cleveland says it became apparent during the engineering process that significant changes to the design needed to be made. He says the changes were necessary due to problems with the cables and anchors which will hold the pontoons into place. "We ended up finding our chains getting way further away than we expected and they ended up in places we didn't want to be. Some of the anchors got too close to the shore on the south and some of the anchors got too close to a Teresan Gas right-of-way on the north," says Cleveland. "We ended up with quite a risk in that arrangement because the chain and anchor configuration was getting further than we wanted to get." The new configuration would mean four-60 metre pontoons would now face south, two-75 metre pontoons would face west while two-60 metre pontoons would face north.

"After having discussed this with our lawyer today (Monday), public transparency and accountability would suggest that a new AAP would be required to show this modified general arrangement. We have discussed this change the WRB Group and they are not currently prepared to extend the time frame in the MOA, I stress on currently prepared to extend the time frame." Cleveland recommended the city walk away from the project since there was not enough time to engage the public and at the same time meet the time line imposed by the contractor. City Councillors were not prepared to give up the project without a fight.

Council voted 5-1 to instead initiate a second Alternative Approval Process while at the same time request the contractor to reconsider an extension of the time-line. Mayor Sharon Shepherd was the lone vote against moving ahead while Councillors Robert Hobson and Luke Stack were not in attendance for the vote.