Major bridge work planned for a key link connecting London's downtown and west end
Work on Queens Avenue bridge due to start in 2026, wrapping up the next year
Fifty-one years and tens of millions of vehicle crossings later, a vital link connecting London's core to its west end is showing its age, and is due for a major overhaul.
Anticipated to start in 2026 and finish the next year, the work could mean major traffic headaches for the roughly 16,000 downtown motorists who cross west over the Thames River via Queens Avenue every day.
Doug MacRae, London's director of transportation and mobility, says city officials will do everything they can to mitigate problems.
"We understand that when we do work on bridges across the river, there tends to be a limited number of alternatives for Londoners to use," MacRae said. "The number one focus will be to minimize those impacts as much as possible, keep the bridge as functional as possible throughout the construction phase."
He added that other nearby projects would also be assessed to avoid any issues on parallel routes.
On Monday, the city's infrastructure and corporate services committee will vote to appoint a consulting engineer for the project to perform detailed design work and tendering, an early step of the process. Staff are recommending a bid from AECOM Canada at an upset amount of $635,000.
Given its age and condition, rehabilitation of the two-lane, three-span bridge is necessary to extend its life another 50 years, a staff report says.
Built in 1973 when Queens Avenue extended west over the river, a 2023 inspection found the bridge to be in poor to fair condition with a history of deck deterioration, including cracking, spalling, and delamination.
"There's a number of components that need to be replaced. The big ones are the bridge deck and also the barrier walls," MacRae said. The bridge won't be replaced entirely, as happened with the Victoria Bridge.
The bridge's deck will also be widened for a multi-use path, a component funded with senior government dollars, and see retaining walls and connected erosion control structures replaced.
Similar work is planned in 2028 for Kensington Bridge, it's 94-year-old southerly neighbour, which underwent a major overhaul in 1960. The city wants Queen's repaired first so it can detour eastbound traffic.
Ward 13 Coun. David Ferreira noted Queens Avenue is a rapid transit boulevard under the London Plan. London's original BRT plan included a west leg that used Queens Avenue to Wharncliffe Road. It and a northern leg were scrapped by council in 2019.
"Queen's Bridge is a pretty highly used route," he said. "We're only anticipating that's going to grow." Census data in 2021 suggested London was Canada's 4th fastest growing city.
"It has to be done," he added. "We're making it so that it will last, and will fit the needs and demand that we'll see."
The city is also planning rehabilitation work on the Adelaide Street North Bridge, built in 1982, and on Byron Bridge, built in 1965.
The average age of London's 104 vehicular bridges is 46-years-old, more than half their expected useful life, the city's 2023 Corporate Asset Management Plan, says. Three-quarters are in fair condition, while 17 per cent are considered poor.
Many city bridges, culverts, pedestrian tunnels, and retaining walls, are nearing the 50-year mark where they should receive major rehabilitation, the report says.
It's a problem seen across Canada as cities grapple with mounting repairs for post-war infrastructure, said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.
In the 1950s and 60s, Canada invested up to three per cent of its GDP in infrastructure, building bridges, roads, transit, universities, libraries. That changed in the 1970s and 80s, he said.
"We stopped building new, and as more costs got downloaded onto municipalities, they also pulled back on investment in operations and maintenance," he said. "In Canada, we have this huge deferred maintenance backlog ... The bill has now come due, and the costs are stacking up."
London's 10-year infrastructure gap, just to maintain current levels of service, was $946 million as of 2023. Nationally, it's in the tens of billions, Siemiatycki says.
"All orders of government need to come together and figure out how to pay for this in a sustainable way. The municipalities are not able to carry the upkeep load and the maintenance all on their own."
MacRae says the city has been proactive in managing its infrastructure assets, and says there is annual municipal funding in place to schedule bridge work to align with other road maintenance projects.
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