The public can expect the old North Saskatchewan River Bridges to be closed for about two weeks in late August or early September of this year for additional concrete repair work to be done.
Monday, Battleford town council authorized Vector Construction and Associated Engineering to perform more concrete repair work to a maximum cost of $300,000 plus taxes, including engineering fees.
In 2013, Battleford town council, which has been responsible for the bridges since 2003, had resolved to spend $100,000 plus taxes and engineering on bridge repairs, however they were able to bump that up to $250,000 in 2014 with funding approved from the Battlefords River Valley Board.
In a memo to council, it was noted Vector Construction would fix the price for scaffolding at $40,000, leaving the balance of funding for concrete repairs. The reserve for the bridge repairs of $200,000 plus $100,000 from the River Valley Board brings the total available to $300,000. That leaves $50,000 that can be added to the work to be done in 2015.
Councillors agreed the best time to do the work would be in the fall, rather than early June, one of the two options suggested in the memo, because the public would be using Finlayson Island less at that time of year. One of the spans is a traffic bridge connecting the island with the town. The other span is closed to vehicles.
A slurry on the traffic bridge deck is also planned for this year. While the surface is broken up, anything more than a coating of slurry would bring the load on the bridge too high, said Town Administrator Sheryl Ballendine. That doesn’t mean, however, that reconstruction of the deck and surface couldn’t be possible at some time in the future.
The bridges were built in 1908. When considered a single entity, they comprise the oldest existing highway bridge in the province, the longest of its type. When the provincial highways department built a second bridge over the North Saskatchewan River for traffic northbound on Highway 4 and westbound on Highway 16, the old bridges were closed to through traffic.
