A city council committee voted to reduce the scope of Winnipeg Transit’s new north garage on Thursday, in response to the rising cost of the project, a move that staff warned could hamper efforts to grow ridership.
A report found the project’s price tag had risen from $200 million to $305 million.
The report laid out three options. One involved taking on debt to cover the increased cost. Another option, favoured by transit officials, would have reduced the cost increase to $80 million by cutting back on the spaces for buses — from 249 to 207 — and slashing the number of maintenance bays from 20 to 12.
But on Thursday, council’s public works committee voted to go with the third option, which would drastically reduce the scope of the project to fit within the original $200-million budget by slashing storage spaces and completely eliminating the maintenance bays.
Public works chair Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) says there was no other option because the city is already facing a shortage of infrastructure money for other major capital projects, such as the North End sewage treatment plant and the expansion of Kenaston Boulevard.
“We’re in a, you know, structural deficit position, and that’s not ideal,” Lukes told reporters.
Winnipeg Transit’s existing north garage on Main Street is nearing the end of its life. The city has chosen a spot on Oak Point Highway at Selkirk Avenue as the home of a new garage, which was meant to increase the capacity for new large buses that are needed to increase ridership.
During Thursday’s committee meeting, transit staff warned that without that storage capacity, the city will not be able to buy new large articulated buses, part of its Transit Master Plan.
Lukes says she’s hopeful future funding will come from the federal and provincial governments to expand the garage.
“I am really concerned,” Lukes said, but “equally I have the same amount of optimism that something positive will happen, because it’s a national issue, and provincially this government really understands the need for transit.”
Any changes to the scope of the project need to be approved by the provincial and federal governments, which have committed a combined $133 million through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
A spokesperson for the province said the ICIP agreement “outlines a process in which the City of Winnipeg can de-scope the project without impacting federal or provincial funding commitments. This requires that they submit a scope change request with rationale, and this would need to be approved by both Manitoba and Canada.”
Mayor Scott Gillingham, speaking to reporters, said “costs of all the projects are going up. So we I think need to be responsible as levels of government to make sure that we can build within the available funding we have.”
The plan still needs approval from council as a whole.
Councillor calls for new connection to Wilkes Avenue
Meanwhile, the public works committee also voted on Thursday to study the idea of building a new road connecting Ridgewood Avenue to Wilkes Avenue.
Last week, council’s Assiniboia committee amended a city report that recommended lowering speed limits along sections of Wilkes Avenue, which currently has limits between 80-90 kilometres per hour.
City staff recommend lowering the speed limit between the Perimeter and just west of Liberty Street from 90 km/h to 80. The speed limit between that point and 300 metres east of Elmhurst Road would drop from the current 80 km/h to 70.
Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said the original plan didn’t go far enough.
The Assiniboia committee passed a motion to extend the 70 km/h zone east to Kenaston Boulevard, and prohibit passing along Wilkes Avenue.
Speaking to the public works committee on Thursday, Duncan also asked for a temporary road connecting Ridgewood to Wilkes, on land just east of Varsity View Sportsplex and Marj Edey Park, with a new traffic light.
He said he favoured this plan over a proposal to seek low-cost ways of installing a traffic signal at Wilkes and Elmhurst, a place where city staff say collisions frequently happen. Duncan said the intersection cannot not handle the traffic volume.
The new road would begin paving the way for the eventual extension of the William R. Clement Parkway, he said.
“What I’m asking for is the southern portion of the William Clement Parkway that does not affect residents … 450 metres from Ridgewood to Wilkes, east of the Varsity View Sportsplex, as a focus on safety,” he said in an interview.
A report on the feasibility of the new Wilkes Avenue connection is due to come back to the public works committee in March.