Bridge-repair plan a hefty $9.42 million

NEWS/ CITY HALL — The pedestrian sidewalk on the west side of the Overlanders Bridge will be rebuilt at the same time the bridge deck is resurfaced next year, if City council accepts a recommendation from its staff Tuesday.

And it won’t be cheap.

The 1.5-m-wide sidewalk was part of the original bridge construction in 1961, long before the multi-use path was built on the opposite side.

Public works and utilities director Jen Fretz says in a report to council some of the concrete panels that make up the sidewalk have been replaced over the years but nothing has been done to the concrete supports below them.

The bridge deck hasn’t been resurfaced since 1989.

Council asked staff earlier this year to do engineering studies to figure out the best way to deal with the sidewalk and decide whether it should be removed, rebuilt along with the supports (“corbels”) or if the concrete structure should be replaced with steel.

Fretz is recommending council borrow $3.3 million to reconstruct the concrete corbels and replace the sidewalk panels, plus $6.12 million for resurfacing the deck, for a total of $9.42 million. The sidewalk work would take about 100 days.

“The primary reason for the recommendation to reconstruct the sidewalk versus removing the sidewalk is to limit the loss in level of service of the bridge.”

The report says the sidewalk is an alternative pedestrian route if the multi-use pathway should have to be taken out of service for repairs.

Council decided in January to hold off on the deck resurfacing until next year in order to study the sidewalk issue.

Some repair work to the corbels was already done earlier this year as they were being inspected, and access to the North Shore shopping area was interrupted by reconstruction work along Tranquille Road.