Residents voice concerns over Walterdale Bridge project

EDMONTON- Residents are getting a better idea of how construction on the new Walterdale Bridge will impact the area.

The current Walterdale Bridge has lived a long life but, it’s in need of replacement.

“The old bridge is 100 years old,” explained Byron Nicholson, Director of Special Projects, Roads Design and Construction with the City of Edmonton.

On Thursday evening, Edmontonians had the chance to review the plans for themselves, during an information session at the Old Timers Cabin.

While most residents understand the need for a new bridge, some concerns have been raised. One of those concerns is how traffic will be impacted.

“We’re expecting Queen Elizabeth Park Road to shut down June 1 for the construction season,” Nicholson said.

Area residents say the closure will just add more traffic to other already busy routes.

“The people who used that road are just going to use 99th Street and Scona Road and that’s just going to add to our neighbourhood more traffic,” explained Sven Glasenapp.

Nicholson says motorists will be given plenty of notice of any road closures, so they can plan an alternate route.

Others are concerned construction could disrupt an ancient native burial ground, located at the north end of the project.

The city says it consulted with 21 first nations communities before plans for the final project were put in place. But, some say they were left out of that consultation process.

“I don’t think the concerns of the people regarding the burial grounds have been addressed. I’m a little disappointed,” said Robert Dale. “I wish that people had put the brakes on and the consultation had been more complete and a plan could have been made to keep everybody happy.”

“What’s our concern? That there will be desecration, and we could have helped to make sure it didn’t happen,” added Phillip Coutu.

“The alignment of the bridge was set to minimize the risk,” Nicholson explained. “We’re right beside the old bridge and that really minimizes the amount of digging we have to do on that north side and the area that we are digging, we expect to find industrial fill, because that’s what the history has shown in all the testing that has been done.”

Nicholson says there is also a protocol in place, in the event that anything is found during construction.

“Anything we find, we have an archaeologist monitoring the excavation, (we’ll) treat it with respect, call the proper authorities right away, stop work of course in that area and, you know, deal with those remains as best we can.”

The $132 million project is scheduled to be complete in 2015.

With files from Ross Neitz.

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