The City of Victoria has hired a new face to oversee the $92.8-million Johnson Street Bridge replacement project.
Ken Jarvela, an engineer with bridge construction experience, will assume the role of project manager, a position made vacant when Mike Lai resigned in July to rejoin the District of Saanich as manager of transportation.
“This is an important and exciting transportation project,” Jarvela said in a statement. “I am looking forward to joining the project team and to be a part of building a new bridge for Victoria.”
Jarvela most recently oversaw construction of the $160-million Blue Water Bridge, which spans the St. Clair river between Point Edward, Ont., and Port Huron, Mich.
Victoria’s manager of operations, Peter Sparanese, and director of engineering, Dwayne Kalynchuk, had stepped in temporarily to fill the project manager role while a candidate was sought.
The city has extended its request for proposal stage until Oct. 18, when it will award the construction contract to one of three interested bidders: PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. (Kiewit) and WCC Construction Canada, ULC (Walsh).