EDMONTON — A new 262-metre-long pedestrian bridge in southwest Edmonton is one step closer to completion. The City of Edmonton said it has begun installation of 86 deck panels, which will form the walking surface of the Terwillegar Park Footbridge.
“A stressed ribbon bridge is essentially a suspension bridge, except the cables are embedded inside the deck panels,” said Rob Marchak, director of strategic projects at the City of Edmonton.
Edmonton will be one of only two Canadian cities to have built this type of bridge when it opens this fall. It will also be the second longest stressed ribbon footbridge in the world.
Marchak said the unique design will create a lower impact in the river valley, “both in terms of construction impacts and in terms of the visual impact of the final design.”
The panels are held up by 162 individual steel cables that are anchored to a concrete abutment on each side of the river bank, and supported in the North Saskatchewan River by two piers.
Once all the deck panels are installed, an additional 162 cables will be installed to tighten or “stress” the bridge deck.
The $24.5-million bridge was funded by grants from the city, the River Valley Alliance–which is made up of seven municipalities along the river including Edmonton–as well as the provincial and federal governments.
READ MORE: $90 million going towards improving Capital Region’s river valley
Quick facts: Terwillegar Park Footbridge
- The 86 pre-stressed, precast deck panels will be installed over approximately three weeks
- Each panel is approximately 2.64 metres long and 5.3 metres wide
- The unique design means the bridge deck will be only 46.5 centimetres thick
- The bridge is 262 metres long, which is the slightly over the length of two football fields
- Pedestrians and cyclists using the bridge will feel a slight dip between the two piers and the abutments
- Construction of the footbridge is on time and on budget and is expected to be complete in fall 2016
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