Recent emails sent to myself about the bridge and weir have been attached.

You may find this information interesting... I have removed names of people concerned for safety.

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I was at the WEDGE meeting yesterday where ________ (WDC) did a presentation!

I will try to confine my comments just to the WEIR at this stage, although we did bring up the variation between the 2 economic impact reports as well (nil benefit versus $16.8 plus 175 jobs), and his comments were totally missing the mark…  I assume he couldn’t work it out.

Anyway, with regards to the weir, forget about it.

There are no provisions in the current design to “attach” the weir at a later stage.

Neither are there provisions made for the lock component under the lifting part of the bridge, which means that fitting the lock/weir later would basically mean blocking the river access for approx 6-9 months. (Minimum)

Plus of course far greater cost, enough to be totally prohibitive.

He SAYS that the idea is still on the books, but at a low priority.

When I challenged the engineering quote (he quoted for $900.000) to do some of the prep work he was vague at best. ____ wrote on behalf of the COC to get clarification on that figure to the engineer but never received a reply.

This in a time when we are looking for a step change in our economy, we will get a concrete bridge that will be a monument for missed opportunities!

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Reply to Email...

Morning  ____. Your E-Mail ________re the Lock/Weir has been passed to me for comment. You will be aware that I have already replied to the
chamber some time ago on the ability to add a lock/weir to the existing
bridge so you should already have that detail. I will try and answer your
questions as best as I can.

1.       The Lock/weir proposal is still part of the long term thinking for
the Town Basin area in terms of future review and assessment. There is
however no commitment at this time to it's construction.

2.       As you are aware we are about to consult on the Town Basin projects
as part of the  revitalisation/visioning work which includes the CBD. This
may assist in determining when a review should be done.

3.       The work by EDI-Downer showed that the Lock/weir could be added at a later date. No specifics other that that have been done.

4.        As the EDI work showed that the Lock/weir could be stand alone  I
am uncertain what you mean by "attach".

5.       In terms of the Lock. Anything can be engineered. The need to keep
access for vessels would have to be part of any construction option. As I
noted at the recent WEDG meeting it may be possible to prebuild the lock and
float it into place.

6.       My earlier letter to you noted the estimated cost of the lock/weir
at $14.6m with future proofing estimated at $900,00. It was concluded that
the opportunity cost for the future proofing was not sufficient to require
the work to be done at this time. All this detail is in the report that went
to Council in December last year.

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In summing up; it is very concerning when there is mixed messages that are coming on the public.  In one meeting the lock is out, in a letter the lock is possible.  Is the solution higher up?