QEW walkway provides missing link between city’s waterfront, east end
Teri Pecoskie
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...front-east-end
From its clay-red hue to its slanted steel arch, the new pedestrian bridge spanning the QEW and Red Hill Creek was designed to reflect the city and capture its unique character.
And in just a few weeks, Hamiltonians will be able to see the city’s new landmark firsthand, as construction on the project wraps up.
“The community has been waiting a long time for this,” said Marco Oddi, senior project manager for the public works department. “Hamilton has some wonderful trail systems and this was always the missing link.”
Unlike other areas of the city, such as Cootes Paradise and Dundas, the heavily industrial east end has long been alienated from green space, separated from the Lake Ontario waterfront by old landfills and a tangle of high-speed roadways.
But with the construction of the new bridge, residents will soon have easy access to an expansive system of trails of parklands, without ever having to risk life and limb on busy city streets to get there.
“For us in the east end, we’ve always been looking for a better connection to the waterfront,” said Councillor Chad Collins. “It’s a huge boost for our image.”
“I think the bridge is symbolic that we’re making significant upgrades in the east end and in the city.”
The $14-million project, which was funded by a municipal infrastructure grant from the province, is the last piece of a continuous system that connects the Bruce Trail to the Waterfront Trail through the Red Hill Valley Trail.
The bridge — a 200-metre-long Z-shaped structure that traverses 12 lanes of traffic — is the centrepiece of the plan, but extending the existing Red Hill Valley Trail and creating paved, accessible pathways from the foot of Brampton Street to the waterfront was also a key concern for developers.
As was the design of the bridge itself, which city officials wanted to act as a unique gateway to Hamilton — something that would catch the eye and delineate the city from the surrounding urban sprawl.
“The city wanted some sort of signature structure and in the end the tilted arch was the one we preferred,” said Bob Stofko, senior project manager for Mississauga-based engineering and transportation consulting firm, McCormick Rankin Corporation.
“You don’t see a lot of these around. It’s a pretty unique style and design.”
According to Stofko, who oversaw the plans for the bridge, the material and hue of the structure were also chosen with Hamilton in mind.
The steel was selected to “reflect the steel in the city” and the “fireweed red” colour — the exact tint used on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge — resembles the clay cliffs throughout the Red Hill Valley, Stofko said.
Other aspects of the structure, such as the angled, irregular spokes on the handrails, were designed to cast shadows that mimic the grasses in the wetlands below.
The bridge and surrounding trails were initially expected to be complete and open to the public by the end of October, but city officials say a string of setbacks have delayed the opening until early December.
Gary Moore, director of engineering services for the public works department, said a scheduling conflict dating back to June is ultimately what put the project off track.
“The bridge was fabricated in Dartmouth, N.S., so it had to be shipped in parts on oversized loads, and that needs a police escort,” he explained.
But for the two weeks leading up to the G20 conference in Toronto — the time period during which the massive steel arch and girders were slated for transport — there were no OPP officers available to accompany the load from the Ontario border to Hamilton.
“That put them behind on delivery by two weeks,” he said. “Then, when they tried to put it up, they ran into a problem erecting the arch, which took about another 10 days to resolve.”
As for why the steel was trucked in from the East Coast rather than sourced locally, city officials said no companies in the area could match the bid. Most of the contracts on the project, however, such as concrete, asphalt, hand rails and labour, were awarded to businesses in the Hamilton area.
Setbacks to the bridge’s construction weren’t the only thing city planners and engineers had to worry about — they were also faced with the difficult challenge of building a structure within an environmentally sensitive and protected wetland.
Jim Stollard, board member and past president of the Hamilton Naturalists Club, said he recognized the negative effect the construction would have on the area in the early stages of the project.
In fact, he said his group opposed the initial plan for the site, which involved routing the trail through Van Wagner’s pond.
“It still has had some deleterious effects because the construction has removed some previously existing wetland areas,” Stollard said. “But you can always mitigate some of the effects that you’ve caused by planting natural species and making efforts to screen sensitive areas from pathways.”
City officials said this was taken into consideration during the planning stages and a portion of the project’s budget will be devoted to restoring the wetlands once construction is done.
The Naturalists Club isn’t alone in speaking out against the bridge. City Councillor and mayor-elect Bob Bratina also criticized the project in his recent election campaign, saying the funds should have been devoted to remediating Beasley Park, a contaminated inner-city green space, instead.
Environmental and political concerns notwithstanding, the bridge and surrounding trail systems are poised to bring positive change to a neighbourhood that has been all but cut off from the recreational and social opportunities the waterfront affords.
For Steve Miazga, chief administrative officer for the Hamilton Conservation Authority, the new link will not only promote active living, but benefit local businesses as well.
“It’s a great boon for the community,” he said.
By the numbers
76: the tilt, in degrees, of the bridge’s signature arch.
12: the number of lanes of traffic the bridge will traverse over the QEW.
200: the length, in metres, of the bridge’s deck.
14,000,000: the budget, in dollars, for the East Hamilton Recreational Trail and Waterfront Link.
7,600,000: the cost, in dollars, for the bridge alone.
1996: the year in which the idea for a pedestrian pathway across the QEW was initially raised.
2008: the year in which construction formally started on the project.