VICTORIA -- The new Johnson Street Bridge, which opened in March 2018, is scheduled to undergo a provincial audit by the Auditor General for Local Government (AGLG).
The audit was called for in 2018 by Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps who was serving as mayor when the bridge finally opened after years of delays at nearly triple the original cost.
The bridge, which was originally estimated to cost $35-million to build, completed at a cost of over $100-million. Many of the problems are said to have been caused by orders of Chinese-manufactured steel, which had a number of non-conformances that needed to be fixed.
The AGLG says that its audit will review the bridge construction project as a whole and make recommendations to the city and other local governments on how to manage similar capital projects in the future.
"One of the major services local governments provide is the construction and maintenance of community infrastructure," said Gordon Ruth, auditor general for local government in a news release Wednesday.
"The effective management of these projects can have a huge impact on how well taxpayers’ money is spent and the quality of services they receive."
When Helps first called for the audit, she said that she hoped the public report would help other B.C. communities manage their larger infrastructure projects.
"The AGLG makes the reports public and so it will be a good learning opportunity for other local governments across the province," Helps told CFAX 1070 in September 2018.
