Driving down St. Albert Trail will take a little more time and patience over the next few weeks, when construction resumes on two bridge projects.
Starting Monday and spanning at least two weeks, St. Albert Trail is expected to narrow to one lane in either direction, as a city contractor works to finish construction on the bridge project that started last year.
The construction will take place on the two bridges on the trail, the Sir Winston Churchill Avenue overpass and the Sturgeon River crossing.
With weather finally co-operating, crews will put down a new layer of asphalt on the bridges and in the roadway between.
Overnight closures will reduce traffic to one lane in each direction from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting July 5.
Tracy Allen, manager of capital projects for the city, said crews will do whatever they can to lessen the disruption.
“We will minimize it whenever possible, but there will be nights when it will be [reduced to] one lane in either direction for sure.”
The repairs started last year and were estimated to cost $2.5 million, but Allen said the city has been fortunate and is expecting the project to come in $500,000 under budget.
Allen explained most of the costs and the amount of work involved, were lower than expected.
“We didn’t find as much repair work as we thought we would have to do when we actually exposed all of the concrete.”
Despite the best engineering estimates and testing, the true cost of bridge projects doesn’t come to light until the project is under way, Allen said.
“You can do core samples and the testing, but it is like any house renovation. Until you open the wall you don’t know exactly what you are going to find.”
The asphalt crews will use a special compound on the bridge deck that’s designed to hold up better. The project was delayed last winter because the temperature needs to be above 12 C to apply the material.
“We decided to wait until this year to make sure we got a superior product.”
This is the last major facelift of a vehicular bridge in St. Albert. Allen said a properly maintained vehicular bridge can last decades with the right maintenance.
“As long as you properly maintain it and minimize salt that goes down on it and do regular inspections, you can get quite a long life out of these bridges, there are bridges that are well over 50 years old.”
The city will now shift its focus to pedestrian bridges.
