Arches arrive for new St. Patrick's Island bridge

A new $25-million bridge from East Village to St. Patrick’s Island is closer to completion with the arrival of steel arches from a fabricator in Montreal.

The pedestrian bridge replaces the existing one that crosses over to the west end of the 12.5-hectare island. It will also link to the north bank of the Bow, linking East Village to Bridgeland.

The engineering firm RFR in Paris and the Calgary office of Halsall Associates Ltd. teamed up to win the design competition for the bridge in 2009.

They came up with a bridge that is meant to evoke a stone skipping across water.

Construction began on the bridge last year with the installation of temporary berms to support the base and bridge deck structure, said a release from the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), which is in charge of the project.

As the arches continue to arrive by truck from Montreal, workers will start to weld them into place with the use of a 250 tonne crane.  The concrete deck will also be poured and prepared.

"Once steel arch assembly and concrete curing is completed in the fall, the bridge cables will be connected and the final steel painting carried out," the CMLC said in a release.

The old bridge will be removed in May. Its wooden bridge will be repurposed and all metal and concrete will be recycled.

The project will limit access through St. Patrick’s Island from March until fall 2014. Pedestrians and bicycle commuters will be detoured to St. George’s Bridge, Baines Bridge and Langevin Bridge, officials said.

The new bridge is scheduled to open by the end of the year.