Why build a simple bridge when complicated will do?

The Red Hill Parkway is opening as early this summer in Hamilton, connecting Lincoln Alexander with Queen Elizabeth Way, and will finally give some very welcome relief to the often jammed open-access routes that climb up and down the Escarpment; especially Centennial Parkway. Truly impressive is the concurrent rehabilitation of Red Hill Creek itself, once a toxic waste dump but now a river where salmon can actually swim upstream; as well as how few trees that had to be cut down (the originally projection of 47,000 turned out to be something like 17,000 and the rest have been replanted either through the valley or in other "brownfield" parts of the city).

One loose end that has to be tied up is a long-needed pedestrian link over the QEW between Lake Ontario and the rest of the trail that parallels the highway. A very simple bridge, like what exists over the 403 adjacent to the Lincoln Alexander interchange, would suffice and might cost -- $3 million, tops.

Instead, city planners want the council to approve a $7.5 million bridge that would allegedly "distract" drivers coming in from the Niagara region who usually notice the industrial district as they wind through the city. Distract them, because it would have an arch that replicates the northbound lanes of the Burlington Skyway a full six kilometres up the road.

Keep it straight and simple, folks. If you're going to spend that kind of money, then do it fixing our roads, especially those effing year-round potholes on Garth Street -- or if it absolutely has to be spent on economic development, open a "gateway" centre on Fifty Road, ten kilometres to the east of where they want to put this ugly duckling bridge. The Niagara Discovery Centre, over the county line and at the next interchange at Casablanca, is a good example of what works to attract tourists who want information about wine country as well as the usual cheesy fare in Niagara Falls.

Of course, it's Hamilton where city council has always done stupid stuff rather than run the city like a business.

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