Materials thrown off Granville St. bridge damage buildings below

Businesses on Granville Island are renewing calls for better safety measures after construction materials were thrown from the Granville Street Bridge on Saturday morning, damaging several buildings in the area below.

A City of Vancouver spokesperson told CBC News that a person entered a construction area of the bridge sometime before 6 a.m., removed the materials and then threw them over the side, causing damage to several structures including the Improv Centre.

The city says it is working with Vancouver police and Granville Island businesses to investigate the incident. CBC has contacted the Vancouver Police Department for more information.

On Sunday, several pieces of debris could be seen embedded in the awning above the entrance to the Improv Centre, and several glass panels were shattered.

The Improv Centre on Granville Island says no one was injured when a fencing bracket and other debris fell on the building's awning early Saturday morning, but some say it's only a matter of time. (CBC News)

While the Improv Centre says no one was injured by a fencing bracket that was dropped from the bridge, Granville Island general manager Tom Lancaster says he feels it is only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.

He says material has been falling from the bridge about every month or two for years due to construction, vandalism, or deterioration of the structure, causing costly damage to organizations in the tourist-heavy area that he says are barely scraping by.

"Small businesses, non-profits are struggling to try to make a go of things on tiny little margins and then stuff like this happens," Lancaster said Sunday. "It's really unfortunate."

Close calls

David McCann says Creekhouse, the building he manages that houses several businesses on the Island, has also had some costly close calls.

"We had someone sitting in their office and a piece of steel came through the skylight and landed on his desk," he told CBC News.

"Another one of our tenants was sitting in one of the parking lots with his wife and child in the back seat and about a three-foot piece of debris came right through the windshield of the car, terrified them."

Debris falling off the bridge also damaged the air conditioning condenser for Rogers Chocolates in the building last week, costing approximately $7,000 to repair, McCann said.

McCann says Creekside and its tenants can't afford the repairs from vandalism and is calling on the city to install fencing around the bridge. (CBC News)

No funds for fencing: city

McCann and Lancaster have been calling on the city to install preventative fencing and barriers along the bridge, which is not currently included in the ongoing $50-million upgrade.

"I am just really worried that millions of people that wander through here, they're all at risk," McCann said. "Luckily no one has been seriously hurt so far."

Vancouver Costal Health chief medical officer Dr. Mark Lysyshyn also previously called for all bridges to have barriers, like those on the Burrard Street Bridge, in order to prevent suicide deaths.

McCann added that while the city is responsible for debris that falls from the bridge itself, there's no financial support for acts of vandalism.

"They're saying it didn't come off the underneath of the bridge, it didn't come from our contractors, it's some irresponsible citizen that just decided to throw it off the bridge and we're not responsible for that," he said.

Vancouver Coun. Lisa Dominato said the city takes incidents like these very seriously but can't afford the estimated $16 million needed to install protective fencing.

The city is running a $500 million capital infrastructure deficit, she told CBC News on Sunday, and is advocating for more funding from the provincial and federal governments to ensure public safety along the bridge.

"I just want to reassure the public that we do take these matters seriously, particularly around public safety," Dominato said in an interview. "We have many pedestrians and cyclists in this area and we do want to ensure that the public is protected."

Lancaster and McCann say the bridge upgrades must include measures like fencing to ensure the 11 million people expected to visit Granville Island this year are safe.

"The potential damage to human life is huge," said Lancaster.  "It's really unfortunate and really it's the fence that needs to happen."