Yet another hopeful patch on failing infrastructure

Remember 1910?

No, of course you don’t. If you did, you’d be 115 years old, and you’d also have to be able to remember things that happened the year you were born.

But a lot of things happened in 1910.

The Boy Scouts of America were founded. China abolished slavery. The first seaplane took off from water, followed later in the year by the first night flight by an aircraft. Halley’s Comet was spotted for the first time in New Zealand. The Royal Canadian Navy was created.

The first passenger airship, Zeppelin LZ7 Deutschland, takes off, but gets stuck in trees. A U.S. patent was issued for the first washing machine — oh, and a certain Peter Welin of Newcastle, Ind., patented “a valve for pneumatically controlled musical instruments.” Portugal became a republic, toppling its king, and the Mexican Revolution began.

And the current version of Winnipeg’s Louise Bridge was built. The bridge is a significant river crossing that joins Stadacona Street and Higgins Avenue, and it’s under repair yet again.

There are, of course, other old bridges in Winnipeg. The Canadian National Railway Bridge was built in 1911, and still carries trains. The Arlington Bridge, spanning the North End’s railyards, opened in 1912, but, while still standing, was closed for all traffic in 2023.

This year, a May inspection and repair of the Louise Bridge was supposed to be completed by June 1, and then until the end of July, and then until early September. That, after the bridge was found to have more significant issues that needed repair.

“This is a very, very old bridge. So, when you open up anything that’s that old, there’s bound be, regrettably some surprises,” Coun. Janice Lukes chair of the city’s public works committee, said about the latest delay.

Last year, a public works report indicated “The existing Louise Bridge is in poor condition and requires renewal by 2030 due to age related deterioration which includes extensive bridge deck deterioration, non-functional support bearings, structural steel deterioration, and underwater river pier deterioration. … Bridge closures are required annually for reactive repairs.”

So, not to put too fine a point on things here — the stone pilings that support the bridge are deteriorating underwater, the bridge deck is breaking down “extensively,” and the structural steel is also deteriorating. And its support bearings, which are the connections between the bridge superstructure and the bridge piers, aren’t working. They are the bridge parts that handle changing loads on the bridge and also deal with temperature-change caused movements in bridge components.

So, with all due respect, what parts of the Louise Bridge aren’t failing? The railings?

The truth is, the City of Winnipeg is trying to eke out another 30 years of bridge life by spending $40 million on a bridge rehabilitation starting by 2030, in order to let the bridge stay in place for another 30 years. That gives ample time for Phase 4 for the city’s transit master plan to arrive, which would see a new bridge built for somewhere around $179 million.

It’s hard not to see the current situation as a traditional City of Winnipeg method of dealing with infrastructure issues by kicking the can down the road for someone else to consider.

Any way you slice it, it’s expecting a lot of a very old bridge — and one that even the city said in 2020 had to be replaced.

There will be more surprises, especially on costs. Count on it.