Mayor Eddie Francis and the newly elected City Council including Ward Five Councillors Jo-Anne Gignac and Percy Hatfield will officially open the new steel arch bridge linking Wyandotte Street East from Riverdale Avenue to Martinique Drive on Monday, Dec. 11 at 1 pm.

With an increase in development on Windsor’s east side, the thoroughfare was needed to connect east and west, providing much needed access for emergency vehicles, busses, motorists and pedestrians.

Spanning 30 metres, the bridge currently provides two motor vehicle lanes, two sidewalks and two bicycle paths. The vehicle capacity of the bridge can be expanded to four lanes, if needed. A two-metre clearance has been left under the bridge for boats on Little River.

Care was taken with both the practicality of the bridge and its aesthetics. Dillon Consulting Limited chose the arched structure because it is strong and yet also compact and elegant. Painted green, the bridge blends in nicely with the trees, riverbanks and footpaths of the natural surroundings.

Walters Incorporated pre-assembled the bridge in its steel shop to make sure it would fit together quickly and flawlessly, with minimal disturbance to neighbours and the environment. The on-site work was completed by Front Construction Incorporated.

Future plans for 2007 call for Wyandotte Street East to be extended to Florence Avenue.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 10:06 pm and is filed under City News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.