Deachman: Must Ottawa close the William Commanda Bridge for the winter — again?

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Winter has arrived.

Oh, I know — there’s no snow on the ground yet, at least not as I write this. And it’s been unseasonably warm lately. Meanwhile, every NHL team still has a chance of winning the Stanley Cup this season.

But I don’t look on snow, cold and dashed hopes as the first signs of winter. The first signs of winter are when Ottawa’s paths, stairs and bridges — yes, bridges — become impassable, and not because they’re actually impassable, but because people in positions of authority have decided that we shouldn’t use them for the next several months.

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One soon-to-be victim is the Chief William Commanda Bridge — formerly the Prince of Wales Bridge — that crosses the Ottawa River at Lemieux Island. A recent memo from the city’s Public Works and Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services departments noted that the old train bridge, which opened to the public in 2023 following extensive refurbishment, will close for the winter season out of concern for — what else? — people’s safety.

I know it’s a fool’s errand to argue against anything done in the name of safety, but here we go …

First, though, and in all fairness, the bridge was not reopened with four-season use in mind, even though the memo states that its potential to support winter activities such as cross-country skiing, as part of the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail, is at least aspirational. Last winter, however, there simply wasn’t enough snow to properly assess the feasibility of grooming the bridge’s wooden deck.

But apparently there was just enough of it to keep pedestrians and cyclists from using the bridge. The city’s memo says “the original bridge’s steel structure and timber plank surface does not allow for safe plowing, salting or grit operations.”

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That’s a shame. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t other steel-and-wood bridges in similar geographies and climates that are maintained year-round, so that the city might study those and pick up a tip or two.

But wait — there’s the Alexandra Bridge, just four kilometres away, but it’s a, well, um, err … it’s an old steel bridge in an identical climate, with a wide wooden-plank deck that is cleared of snow and ice year-round for use by pedestrians and cyclists. How is it that that bridge somehow allows for safe clearing, while the city’s bridge doesn’t?

I asked the National Capital Commission how it maintained the Alexandra Bridge boardwalk throughout the winter. It turns out that while winter maintenance of the boardwalk is the NCC’s responsibility, it doesn’t do the work itself. Instead, it’s done by … the City of Ottawa, through a maintenance agreement with the federal government.

“Our crews perform snow and ice control operations such as plowing as well as treating icy conditions with salt and grit,” said Braden Dennis, the city’s area manager of road services, in an email.

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Those winter operations, according to NCC strategic communications adviser Benoit Desjardins, “do accelerate the wear on the Alexandra Bridge boardwalk, causing us to change the surface at an increased frequency.”

So perhaps that’s the only difference: that the city doesn’t want or can’t afford to change the decking on the Commanda Bridge from time to time?

Or perhaps it has simply been salting the Alexandra with reckless abandon, knowing that the structure will soon be replaced.

Meanwhile, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, in whose ward the Commanda Bridge starts (or ends), has several times requested that some measure such as snow fencing be added to keep snowfall on the bridge so a cross-country track can be tested.

Leiper also notes that the city is going to erect a different gate to close the bridge than it did last winter, allowing it to be more nimble in opening and closing the bridge as the weather dictates. (I’d like to stress that it was Leiper, not me, who used the word “nimble” to describe city operations.)

“The bridge will be closed for the year,” he wrote last week in his newsletter, “but I won’t give up efforts to ensure that its season can eventually extended.”

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Perhaps it’s too late to do anything about the bridge, at least for this winter. There are certainly challenges, such as keeping its access paths plowed AND groomed. But isn’t it about time that we stopped treating Ottawa as some uninsulated cottage that can’t be used because the pipes might freeze?

After all, there was a time in Ottawa when the streets were cleared by men with shovels. Can we come up with no more creative a solution than simply closing things?

Can we come up with no more creative a solution than simply closing things?

Last week, I spoke with a number of people using the Commanda bridge for all kinds of reasons: pleasure, exercise, commuting, and each said they would use it year-round if they could. And with its proximity to the Bayview station on both the Confederation and Trillium LRT lines, the bridge provides a valuable link for many looking to use the city’s public transit network.

The gradual shift in recent years towards public transit and active transportation demands that the city pay greater attention to how people want to get from A to B — be it on roads, trains, sidewalks, paths or bridges.

Railing (as I have done) against the annual chaining off of outdoor stairs and pathways and the sometimes sorry state of our sidewalks can feel like the Canadian equivalent of tilting at windmills (or the routinely futile pothole protests, or cheering for the Leafs). But there is some consolation in that the city has gotten better at responding, if not always “nimbly.”

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Last winter, for example, following recommendations from Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard and Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster (and this newspaper), the city agreed to clear snow from the steps leading to and from the Flora and Corktown footbridges across the Rideau Canal, on a trial basis. Regarding the city’s apparent aversion to such acts in the name of safety, it’s worth noting that nobody, at least to my knowledge, died as a result of the extra maintenance.

Both councillors told me they assume the city will keep up that minor maintenance this year, so we’ll keep our mittens crossed.

The city does seem to have learned from the 2018-19 winter, when packed ice made sidewalk and road travel extremely difficult. Sidewalks and paths, for instance, are now cleared sooner than they used to be.

That, at least, is a sign of progress in thinking about winter commutes and how many people are increasingly navigating the city without cars. Now if only such thinking were applied to the William Commanda Bridge.

Enough of the cold shoulder; let’s not put people’s hopes on ice for another year.

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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