5 July 2010

Historic Bridge May Have Pathway to Future

The Sarnia Rd. bridge is a joy to preservationists,
a snarl to motorists.

London Ontario - London city hall may have found a new home for one of its oldest bridges.
 
The Sarnia Rd. bridge has long been a source of friction between preservationists who want to save it and motorists frustrated by the bottleneck it creates with its 19th-century one-lane design.
 
City officials plan to replace the bridge next year and now they hope they've found a new place for it, a pathway west of Hyde Park Rd. that runs north and south and crosses Gainsborough Rd.
 
"We are looking seriously at putting the bridge (there)," said Dave Leckie, the city's transportation director. "We're hopeful we can find something."
 
The Sarnia Rd. bridge is believed to have been built in the 1890s in St. James, Manitoba, before being moved here in 1909. Its design has drawn notice from Michigan, where a group that promotes preservation features it at www.historicBridges.org.
 
"This is an unusual bridge. It is also rare for the area, because pin-connected truss bridges are in very short supply in southwestern Ontario... the time has come for this bridge to be protected from truck drivers and historicBridges.org hopes that the bridge is restored for pedestrian use," wrote Nathan Holth on the website.
 
The group is prepared to help London move and restore the bridge, he said.
 
Consultants hired by the city estimate it would cost at least $200,000 to move the bridge and no doubt more to maintain it, costs that Ward 8 Coun. Paul Hubert says must be balanced with the desire to preserve the bridge in a location where it can be seen, used, and appreciated.
 
"It's a fascinating proposition and I look forward to what (staff) discovers," Hubert said.
 
Consultants estimate it would cost $15.3 million to replace the bridge and widen Sarnia Rd. from 125 metres west of Oakcrossing Gate to east of Aldersbrook Rd. The project would be part of a larger $23.6-million plan to widen Sarnia Rd. to accommodate the growing population in the city's northwest.
 
The bridge is owned by CPR. City officials are putting the final touches on a cost-sharing proposal that will be the start of serious negotiations this summer, Leckie said.
 
The railway wants a wider bridge that would permit a second track to be built underneath, he said.
 
When similar bridges have been replaced in the past, railways have picked up the cost of increasing the length of bridges while cities have paid to add lanes, London wants capacity for four lanes.
 
"If we don't reach a deal, I don't know what we will do," Leckie said.
 
He hopes an agreement will be in place by September. That would enable work to begin in 2011. It's roughly a nine-month project and city council has set aside money for the project.
 
That timeline is crucial, Hubert said, a sentiment also of other councillors whose wards abut the area.
 
"Sarnia Road is critical to the development of the northwest of the city. (A widened road and bridge) will relieve traffic congestion on Hyde Park Rd., through residential neighbourhoods, give better access to the university, and the hospital from the west," he said.
 
At least seven collisions occurred at the bridge from 2004 to 2008, two of them involving trucks that caused the bridge to be closed for five months.
 
The road is heavily travelled, with around 13,200 vehicles a day to the east and 6,500 west of the bridge. Once the bridge is replaced, staff expect volumes to grow over 20 years to 20,000 vehicles a day in the east, and 14,000 vehicles a day to the west.
 
Jonathan Sher.