Vehicle traffic short of $60 million bill
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Dec 15/00) - A fixed link to replace the Merv Hardie ferry at Fort Providence could founder in troubled financial waters.
But that doesn't discourage promoters of a bridge across the greatest river in the North. Dene, Metis and Fort Providence councils have launched a $100,000 cost analysis study.
Past feasibility studies estimate the bridge's cost at $60 million.
Years, even decades, would pass before anything gets started (if it gets started). So while Fort Providence groups are crunching numbers, Yellowknifer did some crunching of its own -- premature and rough it is.
We looked at the revenue a .9 km bridge might generate.
Rough estimates suggest an annual toll income of $500,000 to $2 million. The figure is based on 69,350 cars and trucks paying $20 to $50 for a return trip.
Vehicle stats were based on Department of Transportation figures. Tolls were based on B.C. and PEI user-fee highways and bridges.
Masood Hassan, planning director for the NWT department of transportation declined to draw conclusions from our calculations.
"Commenting (on feasibility) would be up to the Fort Providence groups. What I can confirm is that the traffic numbers are very low," Hassan said.
Money, though, remains an issue.
The $175,000 spent on an ice bridge each year would not necessarily go into bridge development, said regional superintendent Art Barnes at the department of transportation.
Ferry costs could not be obtained by the Yellowknifer's deadline.
Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president John Ondrack said economic development (pipelines, roads) and tourism would open up with a bridge. The benefits stop there.
"The tolls would have to be so ridiculously high that it wouldn't be worth it," Ondrack said.
Revenue losses and increased costs resulting from ice bridge or ferry closures each year are almost impossible to estimate, he said.
"We don't have the resources to quantify the economic loss."
