COMING DOWN SOON
Railway company to remove North Sydney bridge next month
Railway company to remove North Sydney bridge.
The owners of a North Sydney bridge say the structure will soon face a wrecking ball.
Genesee and Wyoming Canada Inc. says the Fairmount Street bridge will be removed at the request of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality early next month. No date for the demolition has been confirmed.
The bridge, which was built above railway tracks, has been closed since 2007 and connected Queen Street and Meech Avenue in North Sydney.
“It was out of service for vehicle traffic long before the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway stopped the Sydney subdivision operations,” said Michael Williams, spokesperson for Genesee and Wyoming Canada Inc.
The railway company acquired control of the railroad in 2013 and at that time also became the owners of the bridge, which features steel beams and a wooden surface.
In December 2017, CBRM officials visited the bridge location after a complaint was brought forward that stated the structure was unsafe.
The municipality’s engineering department determined there were issues with the bridge, despite the railway company saying otherwise.
Williams confirmed railroad management met with the municipality two months ago regarding the bridge and the company has since agreed to have the structure removed.
Currently, concrete barricades block vehicle entry to the bridge. No trespassing signs have been placed at the location, however there’s nothing stopping pedestrians from crossing the bridge.
District 2 Coun. Earlene MacMullin is pleased something is being done with the bridge.
“Anybody that grew up here loves that bridge, there’s no question,” said MacMullin. “It’s kind of historic, but at the same time we knew it wasn’t going to be renovated.
“Right now it’s a major safety concern. Anybody who takes a walk near, on or under that bridge will see that there is a lot of major issues with it, so for the safety of the community, I totally stand behind them taking it down.”
MacMullin said some people would rather see the bridge refurbished.
“A lot of things have changed over the years and there is grading issues and right now the grading of that bridge doesn’t meet any of the municipality’s codes,” she said.
“In all reality, (the railway company) can’t even fix up the existing bridge. They would have had to completely take it down and rebuild it or take it down completely.”
Rick McCready, CBRM heritage officer, confirmed the municipality was contacted by a local resident who suggested the bridge be deemed heritage status.
“Normally it’s the owner of a property that requests heritage registration, so in this particular case, if we were to take this to council and recommend heritage status registration, we would have had to informally notify the railway of our intent to do it, said McCready.
“Having it registered as a heritage property would restrict what the railway could do with the bridge, including removing the bridge, so it never really went very far because we would have been looking for the railway company to endorse having it registered as a heritage property and they never initiated it.”
MacMullin believes many local residents will be upset with the news of the bridge’s removal.
“Of course, they’re going to miss it, a person is going to miss anything they’re used to seeing every day, but in the end, no maintenance work was going into this bridge by the railway, so if they’re not going to maintain it they have to do something about it.”