The Bruhn Bridge will be receiving some attention from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure that won’t involve patching or other repairs.
At last week’s Sicamous municipal council meeting, Coun. Malcolm Makayev said Ministry staff will be collecting data to see what design options might be feasible for the replacement of the Bruhn Bridge.
“So you might see geotechnical/environmental surveyors out there poking around in the channel,” said Makayev. “This, hopefully, is another sign of good things to come for our community.”
The Bruhn Bridge and Old Spallumcheen Road are lumped together among projects the ministry has listed in its transportation and investment plan for 2015. A ministry document notes the province is currently in the procurement stage with this project.
Mayor Terry Rysz says the bridge is a “not very healthy” condition, and the ministry realizes this.
“I think they’re going to try and fast-track that as much as possible,” said Rysz. “I think they understand the importance of it, because can you imagine if all of a sudden this bridge had to be locked down, and we had to send all the traffic along Mara Lake, especially in the summertime and all of that? It’s crucial that they get the thing fixed up.”
Rysz suggested the ministry is in the early planning stages, adding they would have to put together engineering plans, “and then they’ll probably come back to our community and we’ll see how it effects us.”
The condition of the Bruhn Bridge has long been a local concern. The current state of the bridge’s pillars is a result of structural work done by the ministry in 2011, after a three-foot long by three-inch thick piece of concrete broke off the outside deck and fell into a boat travelling below.
Responding to concerns raised about the bridge in 2013, a MOTI spokesperson said the Bruhn Bridge was in good condition with many years of service life remaining.
Replacement of the Bruhn Bridge was identified as a public priority in February 2013, when MOTI held open houses in the Shuswap to gather input for the province’s $650 million budget to four-lane sections of the Trans-Canada Highway from Kamloops to the Alberta border. While the Malakwa and North Fork bridges east of Sicamous were targeted in the ministry’s plans for replacement, the Bruhn was not.
