By Juan-Pablo Valdes
Pooley’s Bridge is falling down — again.
Ottawa’s oldest bridge, located at the end of Fleet Street is once again in dire need of repairs. The north side of the heritage structure is covered in snow and crumbling.
Regional council will decide what to do with the bridge after it reviews proposals suggested in a study for the transportation committee this spring.
“The north side is in a very bad state,” says regional Coun. Diane Holmes. “Stones have fallen off and it is unsafe.”
The bridge is used by pedestrians and cyclists as a link between the east end of Lebreton Flats and the southeast Centretown area. The bridge was the most frequently used link to Hull for many years. It was closed to road traffic in 1983.
According to Vinni Sahni, the manager of the structural branch of environment and transportation, there has been no major work done on the bridge since 1995 when a couple of sectors of the bridge were removed to prevent them from collapsing.
Sahni says the report examines six different options for the bridge. They range from demolition of the structure to rebuilding it. He says, however, that restoring the bridge to its original state is not a realistic goal because of cost.
“It is not possible to rebuild it in the original stone,” he says. “That option we are not even considering.”
Sahni says in terms of cost, it is more feasible to rebuild the bridge with concrete on the inside and stone on the outside. According to Holmes, the different options range in cost from $4.3 million for full rehabilitation to $670,000 to remove the structure and replace it with a path.
But Sahni says replacing the bridge with a pathway would not be the best solution.
“It does not serve everyone’s need,” he says. “We’re losing the heritage, and physically challenged people would not be able to use it.”
Brett Delmage of Citizens for Safe Cycling, a non-profit association which promotes cycling as a viable means of transportation, says he would like to see the regional government put more money into pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. He says Pooley’s Bridge represents a route through part of the downtown area “where the alternatives are unpleasant,” due to road traffic.
Delamge’s main concern with replacing the bridge with a path is safety. He says ramps covered in ice and snow may not be safe. He adds he is also concerned that, without the bridge, pedestrians and cyclists crossing the path would no longer be visible from ground level.
Chris Bradshaw, the president of Ottawalk, an association for pedestrians and walkers of Ottawa and the surrounding area, says five of the six options are acceptable. The only one he doesn’t support is removing the bridge all together.
“We are opposed to (the bridge’s removal),” he says. “But we don’t need it restored as it once was. It would be a nice tie to the past but we must be practical.”
First built with logs in 1827, the bridge was replaced with the current limestone construction in 1872.
Sahni says the report on the alternatives for the bridge will be presented to the transportation committee within the next month or so. At that point a decision will be made in conjunction with the city of Ottawa, since the bridge is a heritage site.