As finishing touches continue at the new $105-million Johnson Street Bridge, a less expensive project is in the works up the harbour at Point Ellice.
The Point Ellice Bridge, commonly called the Bay Street Bridge, is in line for a general repairs — appropriate for a structure that opened in November 1957.
The work will be put out to tender this fall and could get underway early in the new year, said Brad Dellebuur, Victoria’s assistant director of transportation. The city has about $2.4 million in government funding to rehabilitate the bridge, with the final cost likely to end up higher.
The job will take four or five months to complete.
Several things are on the repair list.
“There’s some expansion joints that need to be tended to, they’re doing some work on the deck itself,” Dellebuur said. “And then the bulk of it is looking after the steel structure, so scraping it down, taking the paint off and then repainting it, repainting the railings, repainting all the streetlights on there, and just making sure everything’s up to snuff.”
No improvements for walking or cycling are likely in the immediate future.
“There is a long-term plan to hang a new sidewalk off the north side of the bridge and then widen out the road deck to put bike facilities on there,” Dellebuur said.
That work is not part of the five-year schedule for Victoria’s Bicycle Master Plan since it wasn’t deemed a priority corridor at this point.
The future work has been previously estimated at $15 million.
Meanwhile, the new Johnson Street Bridge — opened March 31 — has some finishing touches to complete.
The most notable is the south-side walkway that should be ready for use by the end of August. Its completion was delayed by the presence of the old bridge, which has now been taken away.
Jonathan Huggett, project director for the bridge, said contractor PCL Constructors Westcoast Ltd. will likely wrap up at the site this week after about five-and-a-half years there.
“We’re down to fixing some of the handrail pieces that are missing and general odds and sods, just to make sure that it’s perfectly safe,” Huggett said.
Among the final touches in place are plaza areas at the east and west ends of the bridge.
“We’ve got the David Foster Way, the city’s about to go out to tender on that,” Huggett said.
That will go under the eastern edge of the bridge.
Huggett said that not a lot of grass seed or topsoil has been put down around the bridge due to dry summer conditions.
“The city will do that as a separate contract.”
