The bridges are closed!

Minto Bridge West rehabilitation

Union Street between King Edward Avenue and Stanley Avenue

Monday, September 17 to Friday, December 14, 2012

This makes a difference to our usual evening walk; we'll have to be patient for the next three months and make a detour onto Sussex Drive to get across the Rideau from where we live. We no longer have such easy access to the New Edinburgh parks. The work on the Minto Bridges does need doing though. The boardwalk for pedestrians is rotting to the extent that one dark night we might have slipped through a hole into the river or at least broken an ankle. The bridge railings need replacing in several places too. I assume one or two snow removing vehicles must have slid into them on a slippery night and were only just saved from falling over the side.

Barriers have been across the road since Monday, but not across the footpath. I noticed a runner still using the bridge this evening.

It's getting colder and darker at the day's end, and the Rideau and Ottawa geese, who don't need bridges repaired, are gathering in larger and larger flocks in preparation for their migration. I saw them on top of a hill in the park, silhouetted against a clear autumn sky this evening.

*****

Also see my later post about the bridge rehabilitation, published 14th January, 2013.