Council to consider Eighth Street bridge demolition
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/04/2016 (3665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Eighth Street bridge should be demolished and replaced with a new pedestrian connection.
That is the recommendation coming to Brandon City Council on Monday from the city’s engineering department.
“The cost to replace the bridge has been estimated at $30 million, which represents a two-fold increase in the city’s debt level,” states a report submitted to council by Patrick Pulak, the city’s director of engineering services and water resources. “Any investment in the current structure ($1.3 million or more) is essentially a throw-away cost as it will only provide limited use of the bridge and serve the city for only three to five years.”
The city has been studying options for the costly problem ever since the bridge was closed to all vehicle traffic last July. Prior to that, the aging structure had been subject to numerous temporary and partial closures. Constructed in 1934 and updated in 1968, the bridge was determined to have advanced deterioration in a 2012 bridge assessment. Last year, engineers found it was even worse than originally thought.
Structural engineers from Dillon Consulting Ltd. were brought in to look at solutions. Four options presented include demolishing the bridge at a cost $2.3 million. Rehabilitating the existing structure to allow limited traffic would cost approximately $1.32 million, but would only expand the bridge’s lifespan by three to five years — and would take a few years to complete.
Demolishing the bridge and replacing it with a new structure for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic would cost between $31 million and $35 million. Replacing the bridge with a pedestrian/cyclist crossing would cost $11.8 million.
Pulak explains in his report that since the bridge has been closed, the engineering department is “unaware of any related traffic issues.”
“By all appearances, the citizens have adjusted accordingly with little or no impact to traffic in the area, and service is certainly within acceptable levels,” Pulak states.
Council will consider the recommendation on Monday, which also suggests engaging in discussions with CP Rail, the province and the federal government as potential funding partners for a new active transportation/pedestrian connection in the vicinity of Eighth Street “to serve as a continued north-south corridor.”
Meanwhile, Monday’s agenda includes first reading of the 2016 tax levy bylaw, as well as a rezoning bylaw for 231 Rosser Ave. East from industrial to residential. A public hearing will be held for a variance application at 563 Third St. The applicant proposes to develop a single-storey, four-unit dwelling.
Council meets at city hall on Monday at 7 p.m.
» jaustin@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @jillianaustin