All Sam Clark wants to do is finish upgrading his front yard.
Oh, and not look out his front window and see giant machines tearing up the street.
Clark, who lives on Broadway Street, just east of Duthie Avenue, says he has put up with public infrastructure projects for about three years. It started with a year of work as FortisBC put through a new gas line. Now, it’s the City of Burnaby, which is doing 2.2 kilometres of “upgrades” between Bainbridge Avenue and Underhill Avenue.
Clark says he was told that there was light at the end of tunnel with about five months of work to go.
That work, however, has been delayed by the city for an undetermined amount of time. Clark told the NOW he’s fed up because he can’t finish upgrades to his own property and it means “daily construction hassles” could continue well into 2022 or beyond depending on when the city resurrects the project.
“The city’s incompetence is staggering, not to mention a complete lack of respect and regard to our quality of life,” Clark said. “The City of Burnaby should be ashamed of the lack of competence. The City of Burnaby is now going to put us through this same process we have been exposed to for a third time now ... I have put off having my front yard finished as I was promised this project would be complete in five more months only to find out that I will now have to wait. The weeds have taken over my front yard as it is. This is a disgrace that we have waited peacefully for three years, only to be told we don't count.”
Clark wrote to the city asking why the project has now been delayed and received an emailed explanation that the delay is due to issues involving utilities.
“Unfortunately, through the course of construction, we discovered that some third party utilities are not installed as per their as-built record drawings, which has caused extensive delays for the contractor and an inconvenience to the local residents and travelling public,” wrote an engineering project manager with the city. “Construction of the Broadway upgrades cannot continue without significant re-design of the utilities. We have also recently discovered that a number of properties between Duthie and Phillips have been discharging their storm to a ditch. There are no record drawings for these connections, so an additional storm sewer on the north side of Broadway will have to be installed to catch these storm connections. The redesign required for these unknown conditions will cause construction delays to the construction of the project … Any areas that were disturbed by construction, including some boulevards fronting properties, will be restored to look neat and tidy before demobilization.”
No timeline was given as to how long it will take to re-design the project and then start it up again.
Clark said he has doubts about how “neat and tidy” the city will leave his property, adding that he must still delay upgrading his yard.
He also said it was “laughable” that the city just discovered these issues involving storm drains recently.
“For the city to suggest that (they) didn't know is absolutely bogus,” Clark said.
