The Margaret Avenue bridge in north Kitchener has yet to come down, but it’s already costing taxpayers more than first expected.
The bridge was closed in June due to concerns it could potentially collapse without warning.
That’s the fate that befell a similarly designed bridge in Quebec in 2006, which killed five people as it fell.
Crews have begun readying for demolition of the bridge, which is expected to begin next week.
The contract for demolition work was awarded to Bel Air Excavating and Grading – despite it coming with a price tag of $347,000, or $100,000 more than city staff expected it to cost.
Overall, the project is expected to cost about $6 million – but Barbara Robinson, Kitchener’s director of engineering, says the cost could vary by as much as 50 per cent.
“We just don’t have enough information,” she says.
“As we move forward in the process, we’ll be able to refine those cost estimates.”
Rebuilding the collapsed Quebec overpass cost $7.5 million, but Robinson says a better comparison point is the newly constructed bridge on Block Line Road.
“The total price for that project is coming in at about $6.3 million,” she says.
“That bridge is significantly larger than this bridge.”
Plans initially called for the bridge to be reopened by late 2015, but that timetable has since been moved up to spring 2015.
Some councillors have asked for the work to be complete by the end of 2014.
Robinson says Lancaster and Duke streets are recommended as detours for cyclists, with St. Leger Street the closest detour for pedestrians.
