Mum’s the word on updated cost estimate for replacing Alexandra Bridge

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Officials from Public Services and Procurement Canada held a news conference on Wednesday to provide an update on the Alexandra Bridge project. However, the group failed to answer questions related to the cost of replacing the bridge.

Stefan Dery, PSPC’s director general of infrastructure asset management, emphasized that repairing and retaining the bridge, which daily services about 4,000 pedestrians and cyclists and carries 10 per cent of vehicle traffic between Ottawa and Gatineau is “simply not a feasible option.”

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“Mitigation activities alone cannot sufficiently address the technical risks related to the structure’s current deterioration,” Dery said. “The investments we’re making right now are temporary until we can launch the process of replacing the bridge completely.”

When pressed about the project’s cost, the officials noted only that 2018 figures showed replacing the bridge would cost $800 million.

“We do have a budget, we do have a cost that we’re working towards. It’s not like we’re doing this blindly. It’s just that I’m not sure if we can share that publicly at this point at this time,” Lebrun said.

The officials shared that “a lot has happened” since 2018, including the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, meaning there may be “some level of escalation” in cost for the project.

They shared that $800 million was a “starting point” and that, based on the 2018 analysis, repairing the bridge would cost between $200 million and $300 million more, though that was no longer an option, based on technical analyses.

“We’ll obviously have a little bit more clarity in terms of costs in the coming months,” said Dery, who added there would be a net benefit to replacing the aging Alexandra Bridge since having to regularly close a bridge created economic instability. “We do need to be sensitive around communicating project numbers as we advance into a procurement, competitive selection process.”

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PSPC was mandated by the federal government to replace the bridge in 2019.

In August 2023, PSPC announced that the bridge would be shut down to vehicles for a year “to perform essential rehabilitation and repairs to keep the bridge safe and in service until deconstruction.” It said one lane of the bridge would remain accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.

In June, the department said the closure to vehicular traffic would be extended from fall 2024 to February 2025 to complete “essential rehabilitation and repair work.”

With the replacement project now in the planning design stage, Dery said the government planned to consult the public on the design concept in the fall. A final heritage impact assessment, he said, should be available in winter 2025, with design selection occurring in spring 2025.

Dery said National Capital Commission board of directors approval for the final design was expected in spring 2028, with construction to run from 2028 to 2032.

“The project’s team’s vision is to create a good bridge that is reliable, safe, that will be there for 150 or more years into the future,” said Paul Lebrun, PSPC’s chief engineer for bridges within the National Capital Region. “We don’t want to create a bridge that’s just a highway crossing. We would like it to be also a place where people come together.”

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The new bridge is expected to be wider and to have separate channels for bikes and pedestrians. It will incorporate rest points for cyclists and walkers and improved access to the Ottawa River shoreline.

While heritage advocates have decried the bridge’s replacement, the PSPC website notes that the span built around 1901 and now more than 120 years old had reached the end of its life cycle as “time, exposure to natural elements and salt, as well as continued usage, have taken their toll.”

It said the decision to replace the bridge had been “taken very seriously,” with numerous commissioned reports and studies identifying concerns with its boardwalk, structural articulation, buckling, eye bars and pins of the truss members.

Lebrun said seven or eight urgent repairs have been undertaken in recent years. Despite an investment of $100 million over 15 years, inspection reports and studies showed that the bridge continued to deteriorate.

“There are no solutions to maintaining the bridge,” Lebrun said, adding that he did not think the Alexandra Bridge suffered from maintenance deficiency and that corrosion was the main culprit for its deterioration.

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When asked if there was an option to keep the bridge as a monument, Lebrun said it served an important role for mobility in the National Capital Region. Even if the team reduced weight-bearing on the bridge, he added, a complex design and work plan would be needed and the structure would have to be maintained.

According to Lebrun, the existing bridge will likely be open until 2028 or 2029, though that will be determined once contractors are on board.

“There will be a period of time where there is no bridge in that area,” Lebrun said, noting work also needed to be done on the Chaudière Crossing and Macdonald-Cartier bridges before the Alexandra Bridge could be replaced.

Lebrun said mitigation measures would be in place between now and when the bridge is demolished, such as regular inspections and a structural health monitoring system

“We’re confident that, with those mitigation measures, that the bridge will remain safe until it’s deconstructed,” he said. “Obviously, given the state of the bridge, there could be surprises or maybe additional repairs between now and then.”

— With files from Blair Crawford

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