As administration provided a detailed timeline for the replacement of a central Edmonton bridge on Wednesday, one city councillor wondered if the project could be pushed for a later budget cycle considering current pressure on budgets. City staff gave council’s infrastructure committee an update on the proposal to replace the Low Level Bridge, detailing a timeline that would see a replacement span built between 2029 and 2031. City council first heard from administration about the potential replacement of both the Low Level and High Level bridges in May. The project would subsequently involve retaining the northbound half -- a protected historic resource built in 1900 that was the community’s first bridge across the North Saskatchewan River -- for active transportation, while tearing down the southbound portion of the bridge, which was built in 1948. Coun. Michael Janz told reporters during a lunchtime break at city hall he would like to “see more data” on why the bridge needs to be replaced and funded during the upcoming 2027-30 budget cycle given the span isn’t at full capacity. City council is slated to include the Low Level Bridge’s replacement for the upcoming budget cycle, while waiting for the 2031-39 budget cycle for the High Level Bridge. The city finished rehabilitation work on the southbound part of the Low Level Bridge last year and will work on the northbound portion next year. “Right now, it’s a tough budget, and I want to make sure that we’re not building before we need to,” said Janz, who represents the central-south Ward papastew. “For me, it’s a timing issue.” Mayor Andrew Knack said all bridge work is “important.” “We never want to have to go through a bridge replacement, whether it be a High Level Bridge or any bridge, but it’s also critically important to maintain the safety of our network,” he said. “We will do that as long as we can, working with Edmontonians to come up with a construction program that minimizes impact, as they’ve been doing for all of the bridge replacements.” The update on the Low Level Bridge replacement project detailed the new “functional, non-signature” span’s alignment west of the current bridge, that it would include four lanes, and that it would have a pedestrian sidewalk on one side and an active pathway on the other. The report also broached the possibility of uncovering and restoring the south-side Mill Creek to its natural status – a process known as ‘daylighting’ – as the replacement of the bridge “provides a rare opportunity to reconfigure and simplify road connections on either side of the river” but that “as a condition-based bridge replacement project, timelines are critical.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson
