Council went beyond its competency level

Re: “Opening pushed back to 2018 for new Johnson Street Bridge,” June 16. Round and round we go trying to establish who is to blame for this financial disaster. Not to mention there is no way of knowing whether this experimental design will, in fact, work in all weather conditions.

The fundamental difficulty we have is that no one on council has any experience in construction processes of any kind and consequently no idea as to what questions to ask. If you are operating outside of your competency level, don’t make decisions that will have dire consequences for the taxpayers.

Perhaps members of council of the time should have admitted that this bridge project was way beyond their level of competency and struck a committee of nonconflicted people with construction experience to at least advise as to what questions needed to be asked.

In 2012, I sent an email to the thenmayor and council with a series of questions regarding the bridge and was assured by the mayor and the engineer that all matters had been covered, a sufficient contingency allowance was in place and the project would be on time and on budget.

One can only hope that the next projects will be adequately vetted. Bev Highton Victoria