Crumbling concrete plagues Calgary bridge

Calgary’s Peace Bridge, an iconic symbol of the city, is already showing signs of wear and tear.

A city manager said it’s unusually premature.

“We started to see evidence of it within probably six months – there is no way concrete should fail in that quick of time,” said Doug Marter, Planning & Development Manager with City Parks.

Councillor Druh Farrell calls it a sign of the times. Farrell wants the city to do more to save taxpayers millions of dollars a year fixing bad concrete.

“If you look at some of the new concrete that is going in the public realm throughout the city, It’s not lasting even five years without showing significant damage,” said Farrell.

“Concrete is very expensive and we have a system in place that is supposed to capture this damage,” added the councillor.

And the system worked.

“When it started to fail we went through a process of independent testing. And it was determined when they were pouring the mix it wasn’t exactly what it was supposed to be, so that was a warranty issue,” said Marter.

Another issue is Calgary’s weather.

“(It’s) a particularly tough climate because of the freeze-thaw conditions. You see it on road with pot holes every spring. So you will get heaving and concrete will crack like anything else does,” added Marter.

Farrell isn’t buying it – pointing to a sidewalk poured 108 years ago that’s in better condition than some poured more than a century later.

Meanwhile the bridge itself will weather another winter before the two vandalized panes are replaced. The city has the panes but apparently not the expertise, despite looking at the problem for a year.

“The bridge, as you know, is a unique structure compared to other normal bridges in Calgary,” said Sean Somers, City Transportation.

“So some of the work that needs to be undertaken is going to be unique in terms of accessing the Bow from the side of the river and getting that done,” added Somers.

The transportation department hopes to have the problem fixed by the summer – but there’s no word yet on how much that will cost.