A recently completed assessment of the Eagle River Bridge has confirmed there’s another five years of service left to the structure.
At its regular meeting last Wednesday, council received a report from All-Span engineering, accompanied by a memo from district staff, which confirmed All-Span’s earlier estimation regarding the expected life of the bridge on Sicamous-Solsqua Road.
A capacity re-assessment of the bridge was conducted, the final piece of which was a recently completed condition assessment by Onsight Engineering Ltd. of timber pile bents during lower river flows. Summarizing the results, the staff memo states pile inspection “revealed the presence of some rot but not to a degree that significantly impacts the bridge.
“In general, the individual structure components of the bridge are in satisfactory condition.”
All-Span is recommending the district begin planning for a replacement bridge that meets legal highway load levels and highway bridge design guidelines.
In response, council passed a resolution to forwarding the assessment to the 2015 financial plan discussions.
As for the speed dips, the engineering report states they are not needed, though load restrictions are. Recommended is signage at the bridge indicating a maximum load limit of 48,000 kilograms, with restrictions on tandem and tridem axle weights of 17,000 kgs and 20,000 kgs respectively.
In September, council agreed to the posting of weight restrictions but opted to leave the speed dips in place.
