Bridge Deemed Not Safe For Pedestrians To Be Closed

If you have been walking across the 7th Avenue SW Bridge to access the old Wild Animal Park or other parts of the Moose Jaw River Valley you have been taking your life into your own hands. That is the synopsis of a report presented to Council by a consulting engineering firm.

The bridge is in fact in such bad shape that on Tuesday the City will be posting signage warning that effective immediately the structure is closed to both vehicle and pedestrian traffic alike.

In a report on the bridge by Associated Engineering the City and Council were told about the overloading of the structure due to damages caused by ice in the Spring of 2015. Since that time the bridge has been closed to vehicle but open to pedestrian traffic.

Speaking about the report, which came in late Monday afternoon and not made readily available to the media, Steven Chiasson with Associated Engineering said the caps and pilings of the bridge are overloaded at the present time because of three damaged pilings. Because the pilings are damaged they are not holding up their intended weight of the structure and as such the weight is distributed elsewhere in the structure - something the bridge was not designed for.

Associated Engineering were investigating if the bridge was safe to re-open the undamaged west lane of the bridge to one way vehicle traffic but in the end discovered the structure is not fit to carry any type of load including pedestrians.

“The caps and pilings are overloaded…it is not able to carry additional weight and would not be able to take light commuter traffic based on the evaluation,” Chiasson told Council.

“It should not be open to a single lane of traffic but it also should be closed to pedestrian traffic as the bridge is overstressed in its current condition,” Chiasson said.

“Based on load evaluation we did recommend the City keep the bridge closed even for pedestrians,” he said.

Speaking later about the report Mayor Fraser Tolmie said due to liability and the City now being aware of the bridge’s true condition that the structure would have to be closed for liability reasons.

“If we are aware of it we have to close it down,” the Mayor said.

City Manager Jim Puffalt said the City would be posting the signage to use the bridge at your own risk even it you are a pedestrian today (Tuesday) as the report came in too late in the afternoon to have the signage erected on Monday.

There were three scenarios on how the bridge could be re-opened to vehicle traffic each with an increasing cost.

The first is to remove the damaged east side of the bridge to lessen the load on the entire structure. The estimated cost would be about $200,000 plus additional contingencies.

The second one would entail removing the decking and then restoring the pilings with a cost of $700,000 plus contingencies. This option would mean a five tonnes limit would apply and emergency vehicles like fire trucks could not use it.

The third option would be to replace the bridge and upgrade it with a cost of about $2.7 million plus contingencies.

Asked by Councillor Heather Eby how long a new bridge would take to build Chiasson estimated it would be three to four months as many parts of the structure would be pre-manufactured and then hauled on site.

In response to Mayor Tolmie’s questions about potential damage to the structure from a partial demolition Chiasson said it would have to be removed carefully with an engineer inspecting the structure throughout the stages of partial demolition.

But with the partial demolition “there is always a chance an ice event could cause what happened previously.”

The partial demolition option would take about two weeks and then either one way or alternating single vehicle crossing - with cars yielding to vehicles on the bridge - to occur.

Councillor Eby said she did not like the idea of the temporary fix.

“I just do not like the thought of $200,000 which let’s be honest is actually $300,000 to $500,000 which is a temporary fix,” she said adding the more expensive but replacement was the best medium to long term solution.

Council was told the replacement cost without the contingencies was worth a nine percent tax increase but once the contingencies were added in the cost was a 12 percent tax increase.

Councillor Dawn Luhning expressed her opinion about the cost for the bridge and what she saw as the real reasons for the calls to replace the damaged structure.

“I don’t think anybody in the city is going to be thrilled the bridge is not going to be open for any traffic at all,” Councillor Luhning said. “This is not something we have not budgeted for at this time.”

Carpere Wants Access Across Bridge

During this portion of the meeting it was revealed the purchaser of the former Valley View properties - Carpere Valley Development Corporation - also wanted access across the closed 7th Avenue SW Bridge to service their proposed residential development.

Councillor Luhning went further to accuse Carpere Valley Development Corporation of manipulating the situation to get the City to pay for the bridge. The bridge would allow residents of Carpere’s proposed residential development to access the former Valley View Centre more readily where the firm proposes to build an upscale development.

In an earlier part of the presentation Puffalt said the City had met with Carpere and had proposed a 50/50 split on the cost of the new bridge. The City’s share would come from the land development fund.

“We have been looking for solutions to this for some time and it has been difficult,” Puffalt said, adding “this should not go on taxpayer dollars but the developer pay.”

One solution the City had was to access down the existing road allowance that cuts through the Valley View property but “the private developer (Carpere) was not interested in purchasing the property with a roadway in there,” Puffalt said.

It needs to be noted the legal road allowance still exists on the Valley View property and the Province when they owned the property built right over top of it.

Councill Luhning expanded on what she mentioned as the City being manipulated by Carpere.

“The City has done everything they possibly could since we started negotiating with Carpere to get this fixed,” she said. “I think the City is being manipulated in a way to get this bridge built by the developer…I believe they have always wanted the citizens of Moose Jaw to pay for a $5 million bridge but we don’t have the money right now.”

It needs to be noted that property owner Deb Thorn is employed by Carpere as one of their two local representatives and she was active in the Valley View acquisition and issued the press release announcing the sale.

Speaking about local reaction from residents Councillor Eby said the next few days will decide whether or not residents are ready to foot the entire bill for a new 7th Avenue SW Bridge.

“We will find out in the next few days if they (the public) feel it is worth the 12 percent tax increase,” Councillor Eby said.

Councillor Luhning reiterated her point on affordability.

“I am not sure at this point if a 12 percent increase is warranted,” she said.

Councillor Luhning went on to mention documents - not publicly released - that show “a lot of conflicting information” about the negotiations with Carpere.

In a unanimous vote the issue was tabled to a future Executive Committee to discuss the options regarding the bridge and roadway to the proposed Carpere development and where the money would come from.