Arlington Bridge design plans considered

Winnipeg is considering new design plans for the Arlington Bridge as the aging structure nears the end of its lifespan.

In December 2014,a review by the city found the bridge over the Canadian Pacific Railway yardsunsafe for drivers and recommended it be decommission by 2020.

This March, the cityallocated $2 million for a preliminary bridge replacement study. The citycommittee on infrastructure renewal and public works met Tuesday to look at thestudy resultsand two possibleideas for replacing the bridge, both projected tocost roughly the same amount.

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The city estimatesconstruction will begin in 2020 anda new bridge will cost just over $300 million. Both options the city is eyeing have two phases, with the first focused on replacing the bridgein the short term.

The second phase, based on assumptions about population growth by 2030,would expandthe McPhillips Street underpass or developan additional crossing between McGregor Street and Sherbrook Street to relievetraffic congestion.

New location recommended

Building the bridge in a new location in the Canadian PacificRailwayyards is recommended as the best,most community-friendlyof the two options, although CP would have to agree to remove its L-Leadline for the proposed location. That project would take three years to complete, but the old bridge would remain open to trafficfor two of those years.

The second option would be to build in the existing location, whichwould force the closure ofthe crossing for about one construction season. The report emphasizes that would also cause traffic and transportation issues in the neighbourhood.

"There [are]negligible [cost]implications anticipated for constructing the bridge off-line and keeping traffic open for two of the three construction years if the L-Lead line can be abandoned, relative to the option of building on the existing alignment and closing the crossing for the entire construction period," the report states.

Protected bike lanes

The new bridge would have two northbound lanes, one southbound lane and "uni-directionalprotected bike lanes" on both sides of the bridge, the report states. Currently, there are no bike lanes on the bridge.

"The bridge should be sufficiently wide to accommodate four lanes in the future as the structure life is 75 years," the report states.

It remains to be seen exactly how long the spanwill be closed once construction begins, but the city said it will "strive to develop engineering plans that will reduce the duration of the full closure of the crossing to all modes of transportation to approximately one construction season," regardless of which of the two options is approved.

Trying torush the job so the crossing is blocked for less than oneconstruction season could push costs up 15 per cent to 30 per cent, according to thecity.

'Vital link'

"It was recognized early in this study that the Arlington Bridge provided a vital link for the local community in daily activities for all modes of transportation and was also required to sustain today's traffic capacity needs," the city said.

The report also states that postponing the project would mean spending more money on maintaining the existing deteriorating bridge. It also says removing the bridge for an extended period during construction "will have significant socioeconomic impacts on communities surrounding the bridge."

The city wants input from Winnipeggerswhile it studies the new designs and plans to hosta series of open houses to give taxpayers a chance to weigh in.