City of Calgary reverses course on Jaipur bridge after public concerns over cost, design
Posted Oct 7, 2019 8:59 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The city is going back to the drawing board on a replacement for the Jaipur bridge at Prince’s Island Park after negative feedback from the public at an open house over the weekend.
The over 60-year-old Jaipur Bridge is due for replacement as part of flood mitigation work in the Eau Claire area but negative citizen feedback at an open house this weekend has forced the city to cancel their first idea a 10-million dollar project.
“We want to have a hard look to make sure we’re meeting the expectations of Calgarians and how that bridge operates and how it looks,” explained Doug Morgan, interim transportation manager.
“Make sure we make the right decisions today for the future of the bridge and Prince’s Island.”
Cost and design are two major concerns.
“The requirements and aesthetics all form part of our solution,” he said. “So we are trying to balance those objectives of the function, the form and the architecture of the bridge.”
Part of the increased cost centres around the need to make the bridge wider to allow space for emergency vehicles.
The design was scheduled to be completed this year with construction commencing in 2020.
