Pedestrians hoping to be able to walk on the old bridges to Finlayson Island this summer have received some welcome news from Battleford town council.
At their council meeting Monday, Battleford council approved the temporary reopening of the truss bridges for the 2021 summer season, as well as providing money for the repair work needed.
The town’s chief administrative officer, Ash Alam, told council they can reopen the bridges to pedestrians for three months, from July to September, provided some minor adjustments are done. The public works department indicated they needed to do some asphalt work on both ends of the bridge and put up a fence.
Council has approved the $7,704.61 cost for the temporary work on the bridges. This includes $1,200 in temporary repairs, $1,500 to install a fence and railing and upwards of $5,000 in engineering and costs.
More extensive rehabilitation work is still to come. The bridges, which span the North Saskatchewan River at Finlayson Island, are currently rated in poor condition and are due for major rehabilitation work to bring them back up to good condition. The federal government recently announced it was funding $1,387,320 towards the town’s project to rehabilitate the North pedestrian bridge, with the province contributing $1,155,984 and the town putting in $924,996.
The expectation is that the temporary repairs will proceed quickly and the bridges will be back open to pedestrians and cyclists in time for July 1.
Council members were enthusiastic about re-opening the bridges, indicating this is something residents wanted.
“Awesome, people have been waiting for this for a while,” said councillor David George, who noted he had received comments from people interested in seeing the bridges open.
“The sooner we get it open, the better it is.”
The vote to approve the plan to temporarily reopen the bridges passed council unanimously.
