The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor City Hall will soon close the Pine Avenue bridge to traffic as one councillor admits it's 'questionable' whether the structure should even be open now. City council voted unanimously last week to bar vehicles from the aging bridge effective, tentatively, May 1. 'If we want, we can go out and we can spend $20,000 on an engineer to tell us (the bridge is) done,' said Coun. Bill Hanson, who made the motion, 'because we're never going to get an engineering stamp of approval to use it.' Asked whether the bridge had reached the point where it is structurally unsafe, Hanson said 'we passed that a while back, actually.' 'Questionable' And asked whether that means the bridge should not be used at present, Hanson said 'it's questionable.' 'I mean, we're walking on thin ice. I think we've known that for a while,' he said. 'So it has to close.' Hanson said the closure does not rule out the possibility of the city eventually rebuilding the bridge, though that is not in the cards for the near future. See 'Get...' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 1 He said council chose the tentative May 1 date to give motorists 'time to get used to the idea' that the bridge will no longer be an option. The bridge _ which stretches across Ross Creek between Creekside Drive and Kingsway Boulevard _ will remain open to pedestrians. Concerns The vote ends years of questions surrounding the bridge, which, due to structural concerns, has been closed to heavy vehicles and equipment since mid-2008. But as of late last year council was still seriously considering rebuilding the structure. Last November, they voted to make Pine Avenue a street eligible for funding through the province's grant-in-aide program. The city had earlier applied for provincial funding for the project but was turned down because Pine Avenue was not yet eligible through the grant-in-aide program. Council had estimated the cost of a new bridge would be about $500,000, roughly half of what was needed to rebuild the Wallace Avenue bridge in 2008. This past February, local taxpayer advocate Blair Sapergia urged council against a rebuild, saying 'we don't need three bridges in two blocks.' He was referring to the Wallace Avenue bridge and the bridge on the Perimetre Highway that goes over the railroad tracks.
