By this time next year, Kingston, Ont.’s long-awaited third bridge crossing should be open to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
Work on the $180-million bridge linking John Counter Boulevard and Gore Road remains on time and on budget through the second year of the three-year-long construction.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the rules and regulations that came along with it, the crossing continues to take shape. And for those associated with the undertaking, the past several months have been productive.
“(The) project team is excited with where the project is at now. An awful lot of the substructure — so all of the girders, the concrete girders on the approach spans — are all finished,” major projects deputy commissioner Mark Van Buren said Thursday.
“The steel main span is all complete now and now we’re into the fall months ahead.”
And that includes work on the bridge deck.
“That’s going to be an activity on the project that’s going to be with us for a number of months to come — we’re going to try to get as much of those spans poured before the end of this year and then complete those span works in the spring of next year,” said Van Buren.
While there haven’t been any huge challenges construction-wise, Van Buren did circle back to the pandemic and how the work is getting done under these less than ideal circumstances.
“You know what’s impressed me so far is the people — it really has been a fantastic team effort. Everybody that shows up here to work every single day on this scene is coming with a passion — and that as an owner, as a representative of the City of Kingston, is just fantastic to see.”
A short-list of names for the bridge – one that reflects and celebrates the stories and contributions of Indigenous communities in this region, both past and present – will be made public sometime this fall.