Ottawa Ontario - The city is spending $46,000 on new fencing to block the ends of the Prince of Wales Bridge.
 
Workers were at the city-owned railway bridge Tuesday installing posts and rolling out the fences to keep pedestrians off the deck.
 
Carina Duclos, the city's manager of municipal design and construction, said the city has installed private property signs and repaired existing fencing.
 
The new fencing will block the Ottawa and Gatineau ends of the bridge, as well as the section at Lemieux Island.
 
The city is under pressure by Transport Canada to keep people off the historic truss bridge, which dates back to 1880.
 
According to the city, it's not safe for people to be walking across the deck in the structure's current condition.
 
Federal regulations compel the city to make the bridge safe, even if there aren't trains running across it.
 
Turning the bridge into an inter-provincial bikeway and pedestrian path would cost $10.5 million.
 
The city bought the bridge in 2005 to preserve it as an inter-provincial rapid transit connection, but it would cost up to $40 million to bring the structure up to snuff for trains.
 
The rail line is connected to the O-Train Trillium Line, which has a terminus at nearby Bayview station.
 
The problem with the conventional fencing has been people peeling it back to access the bridge deck.
 
The city was considering installing $250,000 security gates, which would be another budget pressure.
 
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