New bridge could be open as soon as next week weather permitting as city holds official ribbon cutting

Mayor Cam Guthrie speaks at the official pending-opening of the new Niska Bridge on Thursday. Tony Saxon/GuelphToday

1 / 1 Mayor Cam Guthrie speaks at the official pending-opening of the new Niska Bridge on Thursday. Tony Saxon/GuelphToday

Guelph Police will be keeping a watchful eye on the new Niska Bridge when it reopens, likely within a week.

Deputy CAO Kealy Dedman said Thursday there will "absolutely" be additional policing on that stretch of Niska Road when the bridge opens.

"We've got a good plan with Guelph Police Service at this point. We understand the community concerns about traffic calming and speeds and trucks," Dedman said.

Trucks are excluded from using the bridge, which in the past is used as a short cut for those not wishing to use the Hanlon.

The city will also be doing traffic counts at the intersection of Downey Road and Niska Road to see if the volume of traffic would meet the criteria for a traffic light.

But Dedman cautioned that the province is looking at improvements to the Hanlon intersection at Downey Road, so anything that the city decided would have to be in conjunction with provincial plans.

The city held an official ribbon cutting for the new bridge on Thursday, although it won't officially be open to traffic until likely next week as workers put the finishing touches on the project.

The two-lane bridge includes an adjoining separated multi-purpose path for pedestrians and bicycles and an under-the-roadway amphibian crossing for small animals to travel between the east and west side of the adjoining woods.

The project, which started six years ago, cost $6 million and came in on budget, said the city.

"The improvements we've made to the Niska Road bridge, including the bridge, will foster easy, safe and accessible movement throughout Guelph, into Guelph and out of Guelph," said CAO Scott Stewart.

Mayor Cam Guthrie held a bolt from the old Niska Bridge that he's been keeping in his desk.

"I've had this in my desk for the past few years," Guthrie said. "This has been a challenging project before and during ... (the old bridge) was way past its prime as a safe, relieable bridge for our community.

"Some projects are a lot more complicated than others and safe to say this is one of them. It definitely had a lot of community interest. There was a lot of engagement, involvement and we had a lot of aspects to deal with," said Guthrie.

Those aspects included court challenges.

"We needed to do it to protect the safety of our citizens on this roadway."