Winnipeg’s iconic Arlington Bridge will need to be completely replaced, a new engineering study says — not just repaired, as city officials had hoped.
The study before city hall shows that extending the 112-year-old bridge’s lifespan with reinforcements isn’t possible.
The bridge has been closed indefinitely since last November.
A proposed new design — with a price tag of at least $166.3 million and a six-year timeline — would remove the overpass’s signature slope to make it easier not only for drivers, but for pedestrians and cyclists as well.
That number, city officials say, includes the $17 million cost of taking down the existing bridge.
City public works chair Janice Lukes said Monday that the new design might not be the best bridge money can buy, but it’ll definitely be better than what’s there now.
“We can put transit buses over (the new design) now and we can put tracks over it, so I think that’s an added benefit — along with the active transportation and without the steep incline,” Lukes said.
“I think one of the best things is it’s not going to be annihilating the neighbourhood to the north.”
Lukes said the new plan is an improvement over a three-lane 2019 proposal, and that the city can’t afford to keep the bridge closed forever.
“The congestion and the buildup of traffic, it’s very delayed, very congested.
“I think where the city’s at now, in our financial realm, this is what we can afford, and we’re going to do it.”
City engineering manager Brad Neirinck said there’s no choice at this point.
“It’s deteriorated from corrosion as well as other issues, including seized bearings, and we had to undertake maintenance work,” he told 680 CJOB’s The News.
“When we looked at whether we could strengthen the bridge and rehabilitate it, even trying to lift the bridge up to kind of put a scaffolding underneath it … it couldn’t take those kinds of loads, so it needs to come down.”
Neirinck acknowledged that the replacement bridge solves the immediate problem, but not necessarily the city’s needs in the future.
“Something in the future is also needed in addition to Arlington Bridge,” he said.
“There’s more growth happening in the North End of the city as well as in the RMs that are outside the city, so there’s going to be more requirements for north-south capacity in the future.”