Repairs needed to keep the timber wharf section of Westminster Pier Park in tip-top shape in the coming years will exceed $3 million.
The City of New Westminster bought the Westminster Pier site and developed 60 per cent of it into a park in 2012. The remaining 40 per cent of the riverfront site, an area known as the timber wharf, is usable but is located on the original wood pile wharf and has not been developed.
"If you read the reports, the pier is good for 20 or 30 or 40 more years," Mayor Wayne Wright told The Record. "The longer you keep up the things that they have told us, the longer it can stay the way it is."
The city hired WorleyParsons to do a detailed condition assessment and load rating of the east timber dock so it could proceed with interim development of the site and determine how much weight the existing infrastructure can handle. WorleyParsons believes the structure is safe to use, but requires repairs and ongoing maintenance in order to remain in a serviceable and safe operating conditions.
On Monday, council directed staff to undertake structural repairs deemed "priority one" as funding is available this year. These repairs, which will be completed within three month, will cost $193,000.
Council also directed staff to incorporate remaining outstanding high priority repairs into the city's 2014 financial plan.
"Highest priority wharf repairs, recommended to be undertaken within the next three months are estimated to cost $193,000. Lower priority repairs, recommended to be undertaken over the next year, are estimated to cost $384,000," stated a staff report. "Repair items recommended to be addressed within the next five years or as required by regular inspection are estimated to cost $3.09 million."
After purchasing the waterfront site in 2009 for $8 million, the City of New Westminster received federal and provincial governments contributions of $16.6 million for the project and contributed more than $8 million toward the project.
City officials have stated that the city would seek grants for future upgrading to the infrastructure of the timber wharf section of the park.
Wright said redevelopment of the timber wharf section of the park is a long-term project.
"We can put thousands of people on it. We can land a helicopter there - it passes that. If you read the (WorleyParsons) report, it's very stable or we wouldn't be able to put the sand on it," he said. "It's a work in progress. We knew that from the beginning."
With a plan in place for maintaining the timber wharf so it is safe and serviceable, the city is also embarking on a plan for interim development of the site. Council has referred a report about interim programming opportunities and conceptual designs for Westminster Park Park's timber wharf to the parks and reaction committee for future prioritization and reconciliation against available funding.
The preliminary design concept developed for the timber wharf estimates construction costs of $650,000. Features proposing to be incorporated into the timber wharf design include a pedestrian walkway, outdoor group activity/fitness space, fitness circuit and station, sand volleyball courts (completed in August), urban beach, labyrinth and grass mound, small off-leash dog area, group sporting activities and general landscape improvements such as planters banners, benches, and drinking fountains.
"The timber wharf inspection revealed that high priority repairs, in the order of $193,000, are recommended to be undertaken over the next few months to address the condition off the wharf," said the report received by council on Sept. 23. "Additional repairs are required over time in order that the timber wharf can support the intended recreational uses."
In related news, Coun. Chuck Puchmayr expressed concern about some cracking that's taking place in the asphalt of the new section of the park.
"Those cracks were never filled," he said. "The gaps are increasing."
Puchmayr suggested the city take a look at the cracks in case it's an insurance issue.
Jim Lowrie, the city's director of engineering, said the city had the work assessed by an engineer earlier this week. He said the cracks were attributed to the shrinking during the curing process ad don't affect the integrity of the structure.
"Are they not under warranty?" asked Coun. Bill Harper. "Those cracks appeared very early."
