Thursday, January 22, 2009

Kingston Peninsula bridge

The Telegraph Journal has been doing a "streeter" series where they ask people "Should a bridge be built from Gondola Point to the Kingston Peninsula?"
The answers are varied, and based on the respondents experience of the Kingston Peninsula and commuting.
The question brings up two thoughts for me. First, I wonder if Gondola Point to the Kingston Peninsula would be the best place for the bridge. Not being an engineer it's hard to know, but I assume that the best place for a ferry crossing might not always be the best place for a bridge span.
Second, on a more personal level, I don't support the idea of a bridge linking the populous suburban Quispamsis to the rural Kingston Peninsula. The Greater Saint John area should offer a variety of lifestyle choices: urban lifestyles in the city, suburban lifestyles in parts of the city, Rothesay, Quispamsis and Grand Bay and more rural lifestyles in St. Martins, Mispec and on the Kingston Peninsula. I am someone who lives in the city and often bikes to the peninsula in the summer (almost bi-weekly) to shop at the Kingston Market and visit my grandparents cottage in Erb's Cove. I like the fact that an area so close to the city has a buffer that keeps massive suburban subdivisions away.
A developer is proposing the first subdivision for the peninsula and expects opposition. The developer said to KV Style that a bridge is inevitable if subdivisions like his succeed. I expect that there will be some difficulty in selling his subdivision if such a bridge doesn't exist.
Plus, practically speaking, a bridge might make commuting easier, but the up front costs would be high.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being a Kingston Peninsula resident, I do not support a bridge as I believe our ferries protect us from the suburban sprawl that has occured in Quispamsis.

I am not sure why the media keeps bringing up the question of building a bridge. The fact of the matter is that there will not be a bridge within the next fifteen to twenty years, and hopefully much, much longer than that.

The Department of Transportation has already decided to invest in the ferry system instead of building a bridge. Politically, it would be very hard to justify spending $80+ million on a bridge to serve 3400 residents, most of whom are opposed to building the bridge in the first place.

I suspect the Telegraph Journal is hyping it again because of this proposed subdivision on the Kingston Peninsula which will be very difficult to sell to potential buyers if there isn't a prospect of a bridge being built sometime soon.

What I'm confident the developer won't be telling potential buyers is how inconvenient the ferries are. Of course, since that is what protects us from being over-developed, most of us are more than willing to put up with this inconvenience.

Anonymous said...

Being a Kingston Peninsula resident, I do not support a bridge as I believe our ferries protect us from the suburban sprawl that has occured in Quispamsis.

I am not sure why the media keeps bringing up the question of building a bridge. The fact of the matter is that there will not be a bridge within the next fifteen to twenty years, and hopefully much, much longer than that.

The Department of Transportation has already decided to invest in the ferry system instead of building a bridge. Politically, it would be very hard to justify spending $80+ million on a bridge to serve 3400 residents, most of whom are opposed to building the bridge in the first place.

I suspect the Telegraph Journal is hyping it again because of this proposed subdivision on the Kingston Peninsula which will be very difficult to sell to potential buyers if there isn't a prospect of a bridge being built sometime soon.

What I'm confident the developer won't be telling potential buyers is how inconvenient the ferries are. Of course, since that is what protects us from being over-developed, most of us are more than willing to put up with this inconvenience.

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This is the account used for updating the Urban Plans for Saint John Blog.