Kicking the can down the road: How Winnipeg dithers on inner-city bridge replacements

When politicians put off difficult decisions, they get accused of kicking a can down the road.

Over the past 15 years, five successive Winnipeg city councils have kicked questions about the future of two inner-city bridges so far down the line, you'd almost expect them to be problems for elected officials in Brandon and Kenora.

In short, the city has dithered on decisions about the Louise Bridge and the Arlington Bridge at the same time it found ways to quickly approve and pay for major infrastructure projects in newer, outlying neighbourhoods.

Since 2008, the city has wrestled with the question of whether to rebuild, replace or realign the Louise Bridge, the two-lane span that connects Point Douglas to Elmwood. 

The piles on this bridge date back to 1881, when it served as a train bridge. The rest of the bridge was rebuilt in 1910 to carry automobile traffic.

In 2008, city officials began musing about expanding the Louise Bridge to four lanes. The 2009 capital budget called for this to happen in 2015 or 2016, at cost project at the time to be $100 million.

"We've put a number in there for now. Once we get the actual design, we'll know a lot better," former public works director Bill Larkin said after former city council approved the 2009 budget.

That design was never completed. The city changed tack to ponder whether to rebuild the Louise Bridge along its existing north-south alignment or build a new east-west bridge connecting Higgins Avenue in Point Douglas to Nairn Avenue in Elmwood.

Now, there's only one reference to the Louise Bridge in the 2023 capital budget. It's one of three bridges that might be in line for $16.5 million in 2028, depending on what the city's new Transportation Master Plan determines when that document is finished later this year.

One of the other bridges that may get the cash is the Arlington Bridge, which was built over the CPR Winnipeg Yards in 1911. The city set aside $1.5 million a century later to determine whether to scrap the bridge or rebuild it.

"The bridge is 100 years old and like anything built 100 years ago they never envisioned the kind of loading and traffic volumes we have 100 years later," former public works director Lester Deane said in 2011.

A 2018 study pegged the cost of replacing Arlington at $320 million. The new bridge was envisioned to have more gentle slopes that would allow Winnipeg Transit buses to use it.

But the 2023 budget places this plan on hold in favour of yet another study to see whether Alrington's life can be extended into the late 2040s.

This was not supposed to happen. Winnipeg's 2011 Transportation Master Plan called for the Louise Bridge to be replaced by 2016 and for the Arlington Bridge to be rebuilt by 2021.

Both are now waiting for their potential fates to be determined by the 2023 Transportation Master Plan. At the same time, other projects have received more political attention — and money.

Those projects include the Waverley underpass, which was a funding priority for federal Conservative government at the time it was battling to retain the party's toehold on Winnipeg South Centre.

They also include the Plessis Road widening and underpass, which was a funding priority for the both the provincial NDP government and the federal Conservatives.

The Plessis project was equal to the Louise Bridge as a formal city priority. The Waverley underpass was equal to the Arlington Bridge.

But there was federal and provincial money on the table for Plessis and Waverley projects.

"It's like a drug," council public works chair Janice Lukes (Waverley West) said, referring to funding from other levels of government. "You're already half-injected. You have to go for the rest of it."

Lukes said when she served on former mayor Brian Bowman's executive policy committee, she wanted the city to fund the western extension of Chief Peguis Trail instead.

That project, she said, serves CentrePort and will ultimately provide the city with more money. Replacing the Arlington and Louise bridges do not present the same economic opportunities, she said.

"We're over our heads with the roads we have. We have to focus on the ones that bring us revenue and bring in jobs," Lukes said. "I honestly don't think it's an inner-city versus outlying areas thing. I think we prioritize where we can we get the best bang for the buck."

The city is now studying the Chief Peguis Trail extension. On budget day this week, council finance chair Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) cited this extension as an example of a major project for north Winnipeg.

Chief Peguis, however, won't serve inner-city motorists who currently use the Arlington Bridge to bypass congested McPhillips Street or Elmwood residents who rely on the Louise Bridge.

Inner-city councillors are not happy. Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos said she was blindsided by the budget's call to extend the life of the Arlington Bridge but she's keeping an open mind to see what city engineers decide.

Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie said he would prefer to see Arlington redeveloped. He also said he'd support a refurbishment that would allow buses and people on bikes to climb and descend more gentle slopes.

Whatever happens won't happen soon. Planning new bridges takes time and building them requires money the city does not have.

Only two things are certain: Both the Arlington and Louise bridges are not getting any younger — and replacing them won't get any cheaper as time goes on.