Bridge repairs unlikely to start until July

Cosmetic repairs to the Diefenbaker Bridge’s splash guards and guard rails won’t be taking place any earlier than mid summer, which later than the City of Prince Albert had hoped to have the work start.

The City of Prince Albert now expects the repair work to begin in July. On Monday, city council approved a professional services – or engineering – contract for the design of the repairs. ISL Engineering, based in Saskatoon, has been awarded the estimated $137,500 contract.

The engineers will begin the design work and the tendering process for the construction work right away, capital projects manager Wes Hicks indicated.

“They estimate that they can complete that in the month of May and June, there’ll be a tender awarded in July and the work will take place from July until October,” he said.

What this means is plans to put lane restrictions in place once – for the ‘big dig’ and for the bridge repairs at the same time – is off the table. The City had been looking to tie the timing of the two projects together, in an effort to limit the inconvenience to drivers.

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Crews will be going ahead with work to replace the water and sewer pipes under Second Avenue West from the foot of the bridge to 15th Street West after the May long weekend.

But the reason for the later start to the bridge repairs is simple: the City only recently received the $1.2 million in funding for the work from the Urban Highway Connector Program (UHCP) after the provincial budget was announced.

The City made its application for funding through the UHCP in September 2014. It didn’t receive funding approval until March 19, the day after the provincial budget was announced.

Council approved the agreement on March 30, and the public works department sent out terms of reference to the engineers two days later.

The bridge work will also include the replacement of pedestrian guard rail and post replacements and power washing of the bridge.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames