Two New Westminster schools - Richard McBride and F.W. Howay - are among the 45 high-risk schools Premier Christy Clark said her government would spend more than $584 million to earthquake-proof.
Richard McBride is slated to be upgraded in the 2014/15 school year, and F.W. Howay the following school year.
Clark's announcement comes just a week before the B.C. election kicks off.
"Absolutely nothing is more important than keeping our kids safe. Today we're two-thirds of the way to meeting our commitment to seismically upgrading all high-risk schools in B.C.," Clark said in a press release. "This investment means parents sending their kids to 45 more high-risk schools know they will be able to withstand a major earthquake."
The $584 million will be distributed over a three-year period; individual projects will receive final approval to proceed to design and construction after the school district confirms the scope, schedule, budget and risks for the project, the release said. The estimated funding over the three years is $111.8 million for 10 seismic projects in 2013/14, $177 million for 14 projects in 2014/15, and $295.4 million for 21 projects in 2015/16.
For the last decade, the provincial government has been upgrading schools throughout Metro Vancouver, but until this point not one Royal City school had made the list of completed seismic projects. The province funded the 2004 structural assessments of more than 800 schools in 37 school districts for the School Seismic Mitigation Program, which was backed by B.C. engineers and geoscientists who designed new guidelines for seismic safety in schools based on the latest research from major earthquakes around the globe. In 2010, these experts used these guidelines and new assessment tools to conduct a reassessment leading to a more accurate picture of seismic safety risks in B.C. schools, the release stated.
In 2004, the Ministry of Education rated six out of 12 schools in New Westminster as being at a "high" or "moderate/high" priority for earthquake upgrades, including New Westminster Secondary School. Other high-risk schools were Richard McBride, Hume Park, Connaught Heights, John Robson and Lord Kelvin.
John Robson is being replaced with a new elementary school, called Qayqayt, on Royal Avenue. Once the new elementary school is built, the school district's plan is to tear Robson down and re-build a new middle school on the site.
