Welland in the News

New Forks Road bridge in Dain City to be completed by 2024

August 20, 2021

New Forks Road bridge in Dain City to be completed by 2024

image of bridge plans

A new Forks Road bridge will be built by 2024, the City of Welland says. SPECIAL PHOTO

The public got a glimpse of what a new Forks Road Bridge will look like and found out more about the process to build it, during an online information session Thursday night.

The previous span stood for 88 years but was demolished in 2019 after being declared unsafe for vehicle and pedestrian traffic in 2018. Some 3,500 vehicles a day crossed the one-time lift bridge over the former Welland Canal, now the recreational canal.

City staff and representatives from Upper Canada Consultants and WSP Canada Inc. provided a virtual overview of the project Thursday and about 30 people participated, the city said Friday.

Work is expected to begin in early 2022 with a targeted completion date of 2024.

There will be a reconstruction of Forks Road completed in two phases — the east limit to just west of Crescent Drive first, and then from Crescent Drive to the intersection at Kingsway.

The new bridge will have a 75-year lifespan, presentation participants were told, and it will be a single span 68.5 metres long and 14.45 metres wide.

One resident asked if the new roadway will be “destroyed” during construction of the Dain East subdivision, one of two major developments planned for the area by Empire Communities, which is also pitching in for a large portion of the bridge’s potential $18-million price tag.

The new road will “hold up nicely to the anticipated construction traffic related to the new development,” said Welland’s director of infrastructure services Sherri-Marie Millar, adding the final lift of asphalt will be added after heavy construction is complete.

‹   PREVIOUS   |   NEXT   ›