Len Chung says he made a “huge sacrifice” for the City of Burnaby and is frustrated that it seems to be for nothing.
Chung is one of several Broadway Street residents who are upset that the city has cancelled the rest of a construction project that has been ongoing on their street for about a year. The work has been taking place on 2.2 kilometres of road on Broadway between Bainbridge Avenue and Underhill Avenue. The work has now been stopped at Phillips Avenue and will no longer proceed heading west to Bainbridge.
Chung has written to the city to say how “disappointed” he was that the project has been cancelled. Chung said the project meant that a construction crew had to remove a 10-foot high “mature hedge” that ran 90 feet along his property.
“It was a huge sacrifice from our family for this project at this time and now to know that it was for no benefits, for a miscalculated plan,” Chung told the city in a letter. “We really want to have our clean, quiet neighbourhood back and live a normal life again. … The hedges fence gave us so much protection, privacy and enjoyment. Your crew took the hedges down, which exposed us without any privacy at all, exposed us with dust, noises and light. Since the start of the construction until now, my family haven’t been able to enjoy and play in our own yard. My wife was so upset and distressed about this incident. She couldn’t bear to watch the crew took down the hedges trees at that time.”
Broadway resident Sam Clark also told the NOW he was frustrated because he’s had to delay upgrades to his front yard.
“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 wrote to Clark to say that the portion of the project from Phillips to Bainbridge had to be cancelled 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.”
The city said in the letter that it was best to cancel the rest of the project and then possibly pursue it again at a later date as part of a different phase of Broadway upgrades, but no firm timeline was given.
“We are currently in the process of organizing a Town Hall meeting with all the residents fronting Broadway between Bainbridge Ave. and Phillips Avenue,” wrote an engineering project manager in a different email, this time to Chung. “The purpose of the meeting is to update the residents on the project and to provide further details and completion timelines and what to expect. You will receive a letter soon with information and inviting you to the meeting.”
The email to Chung then promised to restore some of the impacted areas.
“Any areas that were disturbed by construction, including boulevards fronting properties, will be restored to look neat and tidy before demobilization. The plan is to also re-instate hedges where they were removed.”
