By Andrew de Souza

Lane closures expected in coming months on Diefenbaker Bridge

Jul 18, 2012 | 11:43 AM

Lane closures on the Diefenbaker Bridge can be expected over the coming summer and fall months as the final phase of construction begins next week.

“There are basically three components,” said city manager Robert Cotterill.

“There’s the repairs to the concrete work on top of the bridge, there’s repairs to how the bridge can handle temperature changes and finally all the connections are rebuilt.”

The cost of the repairs, which are borne by the province are expected to be around $3 million.

Construction is expected to last until the end of October with periodic lane closures during that time.

SIGA

SIGA and Northern Lights Casino main sponsors of the 31st PAGC Fine Arts Festival

6h ago

Workplace incident

City of Prince Albert pleads guilty to workplace safety violation, handed fines

7h ago

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

Apr 24, 2024

Cotterill said lane closures are inevitable, since vehicle weight will have to be taken off the bridge during some of the repairs. However, he said the city would do its best to ensure the closures would be as little an inconvenience for drivers as possible.

“Unfortunately we have about a five month window and we need lane closures to be able to actually do some of the repairs so we’re going to try to minimize those land closures as much as we can,” he said.

Cotterill said the city would not do work on the bridge during long weekends.

All work in one go

Cotterill said the main purpose of the work and lane closures is to do preventative work on the underside of the bridge.

“We’re monitoring the bridge every two weeks to make sure we do not get a failure like when the girder cracked,” he said. “The potential is there for at least 100 other locations where that can occur and we need to get that fixed.”

But he said since crews were on scene and the residents were already expecting closure, the city would go ahead with other maintenance and cosmetic work.

“At the same time we might as well do some of the other structural repairs.”

Southbound lanes closures

Jul 30 – Aug 2
Both Lanes

Aug 7 – Sept 03
One or both lanes

Northbound lanes closures

Jul 23 – Jul 29
Both Lanes

Sept 4 – Oct. 5
One or both lanes

adesouza@panow.com

Twitter: @drewdesouza