Businesses call for fence on Granville Street Bridge
Letter asks city council to take action to prevent suicides, injuries from debris
Businesses on Granville Island banded together Monday, notifying Vancouver city council of the urgent need for fencing on the Granville Street Bridge to deter suicides and vandals who throw things off the structure.
“We are pleased to see that this city council has made public safety a focus of its mandate,” says the letter addressed to Mayor Ken Sim and Vancouver council. “With that in mind, we urge you to take immediate action as part of your Granville connector project to protect human life and the small businesses that operate on Granville Island.”
The issue of material falling from the bridge and causing damage or injury on Granville Island has come up over the years, most recently when vandals apparently threw construction materials off the bridge last weekend, damaging structures on the island. “Incidents like this, combined with debris falling from the aging Granville Bridge itself, mean that the risks to people and the buildings on Granville Island are mounting. As previously shared with city staff, falling debris is a regular occurrence, and it is only a matter of time until someone is seriously injured or worse,” says the Feb. 26 letter.
It was signed by representatives of 15 organizations, including several of Granville Island's biggest businesses and non-profits as well as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which manages Granville Island for the Government of Canada.
Granville Island's general manager, Tom Lancaster, has been urging council for years to install high fencing on the sides of the bridge.
Installing barriers could prevent vandalism like this past weekend's, Lancaster said, and also deter suicides, which is the “much more important” issue.
“It is fundamentally a cityowned asset, and it is entirely their responsibility to maintain it and maintain public safety,” Lancaster said.
In early 2023, work began on what the city calls the Granville connector project, which includes taking the two westernmost of the bridge's eight lanes of car traffic and converting them to separated walking, rolling and cycling routes. That work is expected to be complete by later this year.
Suicide-prevention fencing was “identified as a priority” during the public engagement before the city decided on a final design for the Granville connector project, Vancouver's general manager of engineering services, Lon LaClaire, said Monday.
However, “with financial constraints, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the city decided to do the first phase of the project focusing on transportation upgrades, without the fencing, LaClaire said in an email.
“With the high cost to install `means prevention fencing' on the bridge due to the length (including ramps) and weight limitations, fencing was not included in the first phase. However, the city is in ongoing discussions regarding funding for `means prevention' measures for Granville Bridge with Vancouver Coastal Health and senior levels of government.”
In 2019, the cost to build the fencing on the bridge was estimated to be between $8 million and $16 million, LaClaire said, but due to cost escalation and inflation, the city estimates that number could climb to between $10 million and $20 million.
Earlier this month, the City of Vancouver launched a lawsuit against three companies that completed a rehabilitation project on the Granville bridge, alleging defects and deficiencies in their work. The city's allegations have not been proven or tested in court.
David McCann manages Creekhouse, a four-building complex directly underneath the bridge. Back in 2019, McCann spoke to Postmedia News about chunks of metal falling from the bridge.
This week, McCann said that kind of debris has not been as much of a problem recently. However, he said, he is noticing what appears to be materials accidentally dropped by crews working on the bridge.
“I've got handfuls of nuts, bolts, screws, little pieces of concrete,” said McCann, who also signed the letter urging council to pursue suicide-prevention fencing. “Stuff continues to rain down.”