DawsonBridge

On Monday, Jason Meliefste, the city's point man regarding infrastructure delivery and services held a news conference to provide an update on upcoming bridge renewal projects. The Wellington, Low Level and Dawson bridges are slated for repairs with High Level Bridge repairs postponed for another year. Although the update was intended to alleviate the concerns of downtown businesses, Downtown Business Association executive director Puneeta McBryan said the scope and timeline of the projects didn’t set her mind completely at ease.

Given the recent history of the city administration’s ability to build these big projects on time and with minimal disruption time will tell if the Downtown Business Association's concerns are warranted or not.

Edmonton is a city separated by water, and to get from one side to the other means a bridge must be crossed. On a normal day, thousands of vehicles cross the bridges without major delays, but a recent announcement was made about repairs and rehab to five bridges between 2025 and 2029. The five bridges slated for a total or partial closure are the Dawson Bridge, Wellington Bridge, High Level Bridge, and both the northbound and southbound spans of the Low Level Bridge.

A city memo said "reducing capacity and/or closing connections, such as river crossings, will impact various aspects of travel, including travel behaviour, patterns, user experience, and network-wide congestion,” meaning an addition of 15--30 minutes of commute time.