Town of Battleford council, shown all together while social distancing at this week's meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Open for summer

Town of Battleford to temporarily re-open pedestrian bridge to Finlayson Island

Jun 22, 2021 | 2:20 PM

The Town of Battleford plans to make some repairs and temporarily re-open the north-span pedestrian truss bridge to Finlayson Island for the summer.

Council approved the resolution at Monday’s meeting.

The bridge will be open for July, August, and September only after some temporary repairs and adjustments are made.

“It’s going to make a lot of user-groups and residents for the most part very happy,” Mayor Ames Leslie said. “I’m glad that council approved the expenditures last night to get it back open.”

Coun. David George was pleased to see the bridge be re-opened for the duration also.

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“People have been waiting for this for a while,” he said. “The sooner we can get it open, the better it is.”

The pedestrian bridge is expected to re-open June 30 for the summer.

The project is estimated to cost about $7,704 in total. To make up the cost, the work involves installing a fence/railing that will be rented for three months for about $1,519; the temporary repairs will cost $1,200, and engineering inspection costs are estimated at about $4,985.

The bridge will close again at the end of September when extensive repairs are planned to begin, as part of the large-scale project in a cost-share agreement with the province and federal government announced earlier this year.

The north span bridge has been closed for about a year following the 2020 high run-off when the town took the precautionary measure to shut it down.

Leslie said he and the administration have been working with the engineers for the past month-and-a-half “to find an amicable solution to get it open,” until crews start construction on the bridge for the rejuvenation project later.

“[The engineers] were able to rate it in a way that they feel we could open it up temporarily, as long as we put up these extra barriers to make sure that the general public stay away from that edge, and aren’t walking on that edge,” he said.

Leslie reminds people that even after the extensive repair project is completed later, the north span bridge will still be a pedestrian-only bridge.

“Even after the repairs, it will remain a walking bridge, but it will bide its time further into the future as [people are] able to use that bridge,” he said.

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow