‘Chunks of concrete’ falling from downtown Belleville Bridge, restricting traffic

A bridge in downtown Belleville is crumbling, putting driver and pedestrian safety into the spotlight.

Chunks of concrete have been falling off sections of the Bridge Street “Lower Bridge,” which crosses the Moira River, and a structural analysis is currently underway.

Deanna O’Leary, the city’s senior project manager, says they’ve taken a number of precautions including restricting traffic from four lanes to two.

“For a time, the sidewalks were closed while our operations staff chipped off some loose and falling concrete from the arches — that’s been dealt with and the sidewalks have been reopened again.”

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The Bridge Street Lower Bridge is one of the busier bridges in the city, and in fact, leads in and out of the downtown core.

Concrete is missing or has fallen from three of the four arches. No one has been hit by falling debris but Hayden Morgan, a frequent user of the bridge, is concerned.

“If it goes any longer, it starts to worry me more. If that were to fall on somebody’s head, that would probably knock them out or kill them.”

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O’Leary says the city will now wait for an engineer’s report which will hopefully include causes as well as fixes.