Lennoxville community keeping an eye on the bridge
Since its closure at the beginning of last week, Lennoxville residents with a reason to go by the Bishop’s Bridge have been keeping a close eye on the work going on around the span.
Last Friday, local parent Jeff Parent reached out to the Record to express concern over the seeming lack of barrier between the sidewalk section of the bridge and the large open hole left by the work crews. Parent said that he had reached out to the Transport Ministry to express his concerns, which were mainly focused on the possibility that a pet or small child might fall into the hole, but had not heard back by the end of the weekend.
MTQ Communications representative Dominique Gosselin responded to The Record’s questions about the situation on Monday saying that there is a representative on-site monitoring the safety of the bridge and pedestrian passageway. She explained that the pedestrian passageway that has been built follows MTQ safety codes and that people should not be concerned.
On Wednesday Nadine Fafard, who lives near the bridge, witnessed what appeared to be half of the new surface arriving on the back of a truck. The truck arrived on the west side of the river, approaching from downtown Lennoxville, which led to an argument over the fact that the delivery was supposed to take place on the other end of what has become a long detour.
Asked about the delivery, Gosselin said that the oversize load was indeed delivered to the wrong end of the bridge but said that there was no major impact on the work’s timeline as a result of the need to drive the oversized load around to the eastern shore.
On Thursday, a crane could be seen on site helping to lift the new surface into place.
The bridge is still expected to be closed though the month of June