The Forks says repairing a historic rail bridge will come at a steep price, with no timeline set on its reopening— more than a year since it was closed due to safety issues.
Initial engineering reports have set the repair price for the century-old bridge that linked South Point Park across the Assiniboine River with the historic site in downtown Winnipeg — at more than $10 million.
Zach Peters, communications and marketing manager at The Forks, said the bridge needs extensive work done, starting with the remediation of the concrete counterweight that sits above the bridge, which began earlier this week.
“It’s not a new piece of infrastructure,” Peters said Saturday. “As it’s aged, it certainly had updates along the way, but nothing [as] of recent. And now we’re sort of at a point of realizing, OK, there’s quite a bit of of work to do here.”
The bridge has been closed since June of last year as it underwent structural assessments.
Peters said The Forks is looking into whether there is some wiggle room on the price of the repairs.
‘We’d like to see it back’: Active transportation advocate
A spokesperson for Bike Winnipeg said Saturday the news will be disappointing for a lot of cyclists who made use of the popular route.
Executive director Mark Cohoe said the bridge’s closure shut down a vital hub in the city’s bike network, forcing people to detour.
“It’s more of an issue certainly if you’re someone who is using…the river trail coming up that river path along the north side of the Assiniboine, and suddenly you’ve got to get up out of that and cross Main Street,” Cohoe said.
The bridge is “well used when it’s open and, and we’d like to see it back,” he added.
Cohoe said the bridge closure highlights the lack of funding being put into Winnipeg’s bike network. He said the city should come up with an interim solution, like marking the east side of Main Street as a shared bike path.
“I haven’t heard of anyone getting tickets, but I think just to clean up legality would be nice,” he said.
Peters said The Forks is still exploring its options, trying to come up with a short-term solution that would allow the bridge to reopen in the near term, but that there still needs to be a long-term fix.
“We recognize it’s a vital active transportation route to and through The Forks,” he said. “We want it open as much as anybody else.”