Arlington Bridge report delayed until fall

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This article was published 14/03/2024 (590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOTORISTS who used to drive across the Arlington Bridge will have to get used to taking alternative routes for years.

A private consultant’s report that was expected last month, after six months of study, to help city councillors decide whether to repair or replace the old and decaying bridge, has been delayed until the fall, the city confirmed Wednesday.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he is willing to wait.

“I don’t know the reasons for the delay, but ultimately we need information before we can make any decisions on the Arlington Bridge,” Gillingham said.

“I’d like to have information as soon as possible, but I would rather have complete information than get a report that’s too early… there’s no progress at this point. The key is the consultant’s report to understand the details of what is needed there.”

The 112-year-old bridge was suddenly barricaded and shut down in November 2023 after an assessment concluded the structure was beyond the point where annual repairs would keep it in operation. As a result, drivers have to use the Salter Street Bridge to the east, or the McPhillips Street underpass to the west, to get across the CP Rail yards.

The state of the bridge had been an issue for many years as past mayors and councils studied whether to repair it or build a new span.

A design for a $320-million bridge was approved by city council in 2019, but no money was set aside for the project.

Early last year, the city signed off on a study, pegged at $850,000, to determine whether the bridge should be rehabilitated or decommissioned.

It’s that report the city is still waiting to receive.

“Frankly, we’ve been kind of putting Band-Aid solutions on the bridge for the last several years,” Gillingham said. “We do need the information now before we can determine what happens next.”

Janice Lukes, chair of city council’s public works committee, said she was expecting the report to be completed in February, but the committee will deal with it whenever it is ready.

“Our original motion was to incorporate it into the budget, but we didn’t have the information so we couldn’t,” Lukes said.

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“But whatever is going to happen won’t happen for a number of years. Whatever the report says we will have to address a solution and that will be construction and money — and that is years out.”

Lukes said she has no idea what the report will conclude.

“Maybe it will be upgrading the McPhillips Street intersection and upgrading the rail line,” she said. “We don’t know what the solution is now, but whatever it is, as I say, it will be money and construction.”

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.