City aims to reopen bridge this summer
Work has resumed on getting a bridge along Willow Cale Forest Service Road back in working order after safety concerns related to sloughing forced closure of the crossing last September.
If all works out, it will be reopened this summer, city officials said Tuesday, greatly reducing the commuting time for many working in the area and ending a longrunning headache for city hall.
“Depending on what we find, the work should take about three months,” city engineer Adam Homes said during a media tour of the site at Haggith Creek.
The goal is to repair the foundation beneath the bridge and the project will follow a three-step process.
To start, with the help of a large crane two steel piles will be driven into the ground on the south side, then a brace structure will be put in place to support the bridge deck. After this work is completed, the north-side bridge abutment will be inspected and sealed.
Ruskin Construction has been contracted to carry out the latest round of work.
First opened in April 2017, the bridge replaced a failing culvert that had been installed when the road was first built. But shortly after the old culvert was removed, unstable ground beneath the south foundation was detected and by September the bridge was closed again.
Last fall, a new culvert was installed back in the creek and covered with about five metres of fill, halting movement of ground under the bridge.
City engineers have since been working with geotechnical and bridge specialists, as well as with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to develop a permanent solution. Given the history of the project, Homes made no firm promises on when the bridge will be reopened.
“It’s a challenging job that we have going on right now,” Homes said. “Once we start removing pieces of the bridge, we might find something else, so it’s a bit of a design and construct on the go.”
Once the work is completed there will remain the matter of paying the bill. Cost of the original bridge installation was just under $3 million and the new culvert added another $500,000.
Once the final tally is known, it will be taken to an open meeting of city council. There will also be the matter of determining how much other parties will be on the hook for the cost of the extra work and how much will be put on the tab of city taxpayers.
“We’ve got a team of professional engineers and legal experts and they’re helping us put this together and so, when we’re ready, we can bring that announcement to you as well but at this time we can’t speculate,” Homes said.
The detour will remain in place until the bridge repair is completed. The city will continue to have meetings with user groups to inform them of progress.