PEACE BRIDGE MARKS FIVE YEARS
Once a lightning rod for questionable public spending, the Santiago Calatrava-designed Peace Bridge has found its niche in Calgary as it celebrates its fifth anniversary.
Spring 2008: City administration proposes a “signature-class, promenade-style pedestrian bridge,” to be designed by star architect Santiago Calatrava and completed by the fall of 2010.
Sept. 8, 2008: Calgary city council approves the bridge in a 7-6 vote, with two aldermen absent. (For: Dave Bronconnier, Joe Ceci, Druh Farrell, Linda Fox-Mellway, Bob Hawkesworth, John Mar, Brian Pincott. Against: Andre Chabot, Diane Colley-Urquhart, Joe Connelly, Ray Jones, Ric McIver, Jim Stevenson. Absent: Dale Hodges, Gord Lowe.)
Sept. 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers, one of the most prestigious firms on Wall Street, files for bankruptcy, sending the global economy into a tailspin.
December 2008: Attempts from a handful of aldermen to thwart the project by complaining to the province and introducing emergency motions in council chambers asking the city to end talks with architect Santiago Calatrava fail. The city signs a contract with Calatrava for a footbridge over the Bow.
January 2009: Calatrava makes his first visit to Calgary to inspect the bridge site, sign paperwork and review legal and technical documents.
February 2009: In a Calgary Herald column, then Mount Royal College professor Naheed Nenshi questions, “how exactly is a neighbourhood with a total population of 3,600 or so, supposed to generate 5,000 trips per day, particularly when it is already served by two other bridges?”
July 2009: In its last meeting before summer holidays, council votes 12-3 to name the contentious pedestrian bridge the ‘Peace Bridge,’ as a tribute to the military. It’s a moniker some councillors criticize as an attempt to buy public favour.
July 2009: The design for the footbridge is unveiled. Calatrava says the project is “the most accessible, functional and technically challenging” bridge he’s ever made.
July 2009: “What a monstrosity! It looks like something the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce would reject as being too garish for The Strip,” a commenter types on the Herald’s website.
Summer 2009: Trying to ward off critics of the bridge’s price tag, the city releases a chart comparing the cost — $30,400 per square metre in 2008 dollars — with other well-known footbridges. It shows Calgary’s Peace Bridge rings in cheaper than a forthcoming Edmonton crossing ($33,000 per square metre), the Esplanade Riel
in Winnipeg ($50,000 per square metre) and London’s Millennium Bridge ($50,000 per square metre).
Early 2010: Construction begins at the site of the future bridge. A city sign announcing the project is vandalized, with someone scrawling ‘Farrell’s Folly’ and ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ in black marker on it.
October 2010: The initial date the construction firm had been contractually obligated to complete the Peace Bridge by, Oct. 31, 2010, passes with no opening and no signs the bridge is near completion.
November 2010: The city announces the Peace Bridge won’t open until June 2011, eight months behind schedule.
April 2011: Problems with welds by Spanish steel fabricators mean more delays for the bridge.
September 2011: Delays continue and city officials now say pedestrians and cyclists will be able to cross Calatrava’s bridge in early 2012.
March 24, 2012: More than 2,000 Calgarians dance, hula-hoop, and enjoy a 1960s-style love-in at the bridge’s grand opening. A single protester, holding a sign that reads “Election Fraud Helped Build the Bridge,” also shows up for the party.
June 2012: Spring traffic counts show more than 6,000 people are already using the bridge every day.
July 2016: The city reveals the Peace Bridge will be closed for up to 24 nights while a contractor fixes a halfdozen broken glass panels, a repair job said to cost $152,000. The city blames both vandals and thermal expansion for the broken panes, which look like cracked windshields.
August 2016: After continual annual traffic counts capture 200 pedestrians a day jay-walking across Memorial Drive to get to the Peace Bridge, the city starts construction on a $400,000 marked crosswalk at 9th Street N.W.
October 2016: Crews from Allied Projects begin installing 300 new LED lights on the bridge, at a cost of $700,000. The city says the new lights will last 15 to 20 years and are needed because the bridge’s lights can’t handle Calgary’s chilly winters.
November 2016: The city admits vandals have caused more than $200,000 in damage to the Peace Bridge since it opened. The damage has forced the city to replace and double the number of cameras trained on the bridge and consider installing loud speakers on the span.
March 24, 2017: The Peace Bridge turns five.