‘It is good to have it done’

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This article was published 25/09/2010 (5704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At least one year behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, the twin spans of the new David Thompson Bridge are now both officially open.

Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell donned a neon orange safety vest and matching helmet for a official opening ceremony yesterday afternoon.

He declared the bridge open by tossing a pair of pylons into the back of a pickup truck, officially allowing traffic to flow over all four lanes of the twin structures.

"It is good to have it done," Caldwell said after praising highways workers. "Sometimes, things just take a little bit longer to do it right and sometimes you’re confronted with unexpected problems."

Notably absent from the ceremony was Transportation Minister Steve Ashton.

Then Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux was on hand when the first span completed, the northbound structure, was officially opened in July 2009.

Caldwell said Ashton’s schedule didn’t allow him to be at yesterday’s ceremony. His absence wasn’t due to cost overruns or delays.

In 2006, the project was estimated to cost $17 million to $19 million — the project was tendered at $17.9 million and the final price tag came in at $28 million.

It initially announced the new bridge would be open in 2008, and then the deadline for completion became 2009 as the project was divided into two spans.

The project also hit construction snags.

Contractors raised concerns about groundwater levels in the construction area, delaying the tendering process a year and pushing the completion date back to 2010.

There was one problem in August when the southbound span was opened but the northbound span closed for repairs and other work.

There was unexpected settling of the northbound structure’s approaches, requiring its grade slope to be fixed.

In 2008, "fed-up" citizens challenged the provincial government to complete the project in less time than it took to build San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

The province made it — the Golden Gate Bridge was built in 52 months and the deadline would have been Feb. 10, 2011.

Brandon’s bridge, which spans the Assiniboine River along 18th Street North, is named after British explorer David Thompson.

Thompson mapped more than 3.9 million kilometres of North America and was heavily involved in the exploration of the headwaters of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers.

The bridge boasts improved safety for drivers and pedestrians and better flood protection.

Its twin spans have two lanes each, replacing a single-span bridge that allowed traffic to flow one lane in each direction.

There’s a four-metre-wide sidewalk and bike path with a concrete barrier separating pedestrians from vehicles.

Each span stands 2.5 metres higher and are five metres wider than the old bridge.

That places the odds of them being flooded at one in every 100 years.