City hall presses on with $25M footbridges

A Calgary aldermanhas failed in his campaign toscrap city hall'splans to build two new pedestrian bridges over the Bow Riverat a cost of$25 million.

Ald. Ric McIver only garnered eight out of 15 votes during a council meeting Monday, two short of what he needed torevisit plansto build the bridgesat Prince's Island and St. George's Island near the Calgary Zoo.

He said he has received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from Calgarians who think the bridges are a waste of money.

"The message we need to send is that when we spend the taxpayers' dollars, we spend it for the highest priority and highest benefit for the taxpayers; these bridges are on the priority list, they're just really low on the priority list," McIver told CBC News.

City council is debating potentially double-digit property tax hikes over the next three years. However, thehike wouldcoveroperating expenses, while funding for the bridges comes out of the city's separate capital budget for infrastructure projects.

Ald. Druh Farrell convinced the majority of councillors to support the building project during a council meeting in September. She defended the project again on Monday.

"Because it's in the downtown core, because these are very visible and significant bridges over a beautiful river, they should be built to a higher design standard than what we would normally do," she said.

"Perhaps we should look at our design standards for all of our bridges, because frankly, I think some of our bridges are pretty basic, and I don't know if we want a city that's just basic."

Tunnel under airport, big bar review approved

Meanwhile, city council approved $50 million for a vehicle tunnel under a future runway at the Calgary airport. The tunnel would only be built if the province and the federal government match the funds.

Also Monday night, Farrell convinced her colleagues on council to look at restrictions on the size, location and concentration of high-capacity bars. Sheargued trouble brews in "large-format drinking establishments" that can hold more than 300 people, especially at closing time.