THUNDER BAY — The $1.3 million repair job on the Marina Park pedestrian bridge has run into complications.
Because there's more corrosion than expected to the bridge's steel components, it must stay grounded over the winter.
"It's not the best situation. The things that could go wrong did go wrong," says City of Thunder Bay project engineer Mike Vogrig.
The extra work that's required means the bridge likely won't be reinstalled over Water Street until the latter part of next summer.
The overpass was dismantled in early August by Tom Jones Corp., the same company that built it 1994.
Repairs were initially planned for completion this month.
However, additional inspections and testing that was done after the bridge was relocated to a parking lot uncovered new problem areas that weren't previously evident.
Vogrig said there are more welds that are in poor shape, and more parts of the steel beams that have weakened over the years.
"Basically the steel had corroded away to a point where it lost probably 60 to 70 per cent of its thickness. So as a result of that we have to do repairs along both of those beams, also the full length, over the entire structure," Vogrig said.
Work on the steel will continue into November, with more work required next spring and summer after the cold weather is over.
"The painting or the coating of the system is temperature-sensitive, so we might start running into quality-control issues with the coating. So what we ended up deciding to do is to complete the rest of the steel repairs this year...and then we're gonna come back in the new year to do the coating and to reinstall the bridge," Vogrig said.
It's not known yet exactly how much the extra work will add to the cost of the project, but the city expects the final price tag will be higher than what was budgeted.
