Construction of a bridge connecting the Garibaldi Highlands to the future site of the Sea to Sky University (SSU) will start by the end of next month.
But while the work is starting six months later than originally scheduled, SSU planners say the delays won't keep construction of the campus from starting this year or push the university's opening back further.
SSU announced Tuesday (Feb. 17) it had awarded the bridge contract, worth more than $3 million, to Coquitlam Ridge Construction Ltd. Following a tender call to four qualified firms. The three-span, 197-metre-long bridge over Mashiter Creek will connect the 240-acre site of the SSU property with an eastern extension of The Boulevard. Construction is to start Mar. 29 with completion scheduled for Oct. 29.
SSU project leader Peter Ufford said that the revised seven-month construction schedule was established in consultation with Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officials and Squamish-based Cascade Environmental Resource Group Ltd., who are acting as SSU's environmental consultants. The 30-metre-high bridge will be anchored in the upper ravine embankments above Mashiter Creek without impinging on the creek.
Originally, bridge construction had been scheduled to start last September, then it was delayed to January before being put off again last month.
However, Ufford said the delays will only affect the internal planning of the project rather than campus construction, since construction vehicles will be accessing the SSU site via Mamquam Road and the Garibaldi Park access road.
SSU anticipates starting Phase 1 campus construction by mid-2004, with completion of 14 academic, student services, sports and recreation facilities an students residences in the first half of 2006. Some of the facilities will be ready in early 2006 to host functions such as large-scale academic conferences.
"These events will test the capabilities of our facilities and physical plant and provide hands-on experience for our support staff prior to our official opening in September of 2006, when we will welcome the first 200 of 600 phase one students to Canada's first private, secular and not-for-profit liberal science and arts university," said Ufford.
Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland was pleased with the news. "The awarding of the contract and the construction of the bridge is a very important milestone for the SSU project," he said. "The visible activity on the site will show the community that SSU is moving forward."
SSU also announced that it is putting out request for proposals for developers to purchase 44 acres of the SSU's project lands for market housing this month.
SSU director of real estate development Terry Partington said that he expects a formal agreement with the successful developer to be completed by May, with the developer to commence the pre-sale of lots and/or homes on the site later this year. Funds from the land sale will go to SSU's capital construction costs.
The first phase of real estate development is expected to contain than 150 singe-family and multiple-family housing units. SSU's business plan calls for up to 960 market housing units as well as commercial space on its lands surrounding the campus.
