St. Catharines bridge closed for 2 weeks

St. Catharines’ Burgoyne bridge will be shut down at for least two weeks — and possibly longer. Safety concerns about its stability surfaced over the weekend. A long closure could end up snarling traffic and choking local businesses.

It’s noon hour and Young Wang’s restaurant near the Burgoyne bridge is empty. He usually has about 30 people for lunch: “But today, I only have one customer.”

A big share of his business is delivering lunch to people downtown. But with the Burgoyne bridge closed the restaurant’s cut off from downtown.

Young says: “Normally, they would get the food in 20 minutes. Now it’s 40 minutes.”

With the detour you have to go from St. Paul West down to Glendale — or in the other direction up to Fourth Avenue.

Next door at Newport Collision, owner Ed Odorico says 40 per cent of his customers are drive-bys: “There is none as you can see.”

The street’s deserted. Burgoyne bridge is shut down because of safety concerns. Fears are, work on the new bridge beside it, could be compromising its stability.

Fire Chief Mark Mehlenbacher says he has concerns about the bridge closure, even if it’s temporary because the central fire station responds to working fires and car
crashes over in western hill. They do have contingency plan. A fire truck dedicated to the neighbourhood just on the other side of the bridge.

Pedestrians can walk across for now. but that could change. Ryan Belleau has three daughters who walk to school across the big bridge every day. And if it’s closed he won’t allow them to take the detour down below:  “I don’t allow them to walk across the foot bridge. Because in the past we’ve had stabbings. Beatings and robberies.”

Meanwhile outside inspectors are continuing to examine the foundation, looking for potential damage and signs of instability.

The Burgoyne bridge is the critical link between downtown and west St. Catharines. 16,000 vehicles cross it everyday. The bridge will remain closed until at least Friday May 2nd.