Work on bridge deck almost done
[attach]5187[/attach]Road work on the section of Bloor Street West crossing Humber River will soon be water under the bridge, said the project’s engineer Mike Laidlaw.
“We’ve been doing work on that bridge for roughly about the last two years,” he said. “We anticipate finishing the work up on the deck roughly about the third week in December.”
Repairs to the roadway over the bridge began in the spring of 2010, with only intermittent lane closures that first year. The following spring the four-lane bridge was reduced to one lane of traffic in each direction as crews repaved the north and then south sides of the bridge
Work will recommence in the spring of 2012 but will have little to no impact on drivers.
“There will still be some work happening down below,” Laidlaw said. “We’re cleaning and coating the steel work underneath. Basically no one will know that there’s anything happening there. All of the construction activity will be underneath the bridge.”
The entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2012.
Built in 1924, the Bloor Street West bridge is the latest bridge in the area to receive a facelift. The Dundas Street West bridge to the north as well as bridges to the south supporting Queen Street West and the Gardiner Expressway have all been repaired in recent years, though at different times so as to avoid traffic congestion, pointed out Ward 5 councillor Peter Milczyn.
“It’s part of replacing, repairing our aging infrastructure,” Milczyn said. “All of the main east-west arteries over the Humber River in our part of the city have been repaired or upgraded in the last decade or so.”
Milczyn said his office has received few complaints about the $13.5 million project.
“It’s on schedule, it’s on budget, Bloor Street remains open at all times,” he said. “It will likely not need any work for another 25 to 30 years.”
