He wants to see a cost analysis done on all bridge repair options and for the city to exhaust all options prior to closing the stretch of road.

Reducing the bridge to one lane is not an option, Mr. Brown said.

“For safety reasons, you can’t take down half the bridge and have one lane right beside it,” he said. “It’s not safe.”

There are strict provincial parameters when it comes to bridge work, which can only be done between July to September.

“This is the faster option,” Mr. Brown said. “We can knock it down and build a new one. Otherwise the next opportunity will not be until July 2015.”

As of now, the city isn’t seeing any immediate issues, but conducting another structural engineer assessment could take months and further delay construction.

“If we don’t deal with it now, we’re rolling the dice,” Mr. Brown said. “We want to avoid what happened on the John Street bridge. I don’t want to roll the dice.”

Several years ago, the John Street bridge was closed for emergency repairs and it took about eight months before bridge work could start.

The new bridge will feature three lanes, a tree lined boulevard and a multi-use pathway along the east side.

Prior to closing the bridge, utility services, such as power, cable and phone lines will be relocated. That will take place from April to July and comes with a price tag of abut $700,000.

Bridge removal and construction would take place between July and December, followed by bridge and road work in the first half of 2015 and streetscaping in the latter half of the year.

City staff are working on concerns raised at a public information meeting held last month, including pedestrian access, impact of road closure on emergency services, school buses, waste and snow removal services.

City staff are also working with York Region Transit and Hwy. 407 to prepare for the bridge’s closure.

There is a public liaison meeting March 20, 7 p.m. at the Markham Museum, 9350 Hwy. 48, Markham.

City staff will come back to development services committee on May 20, with an update on project tender awards, construction staging, traffic management and communication plans as well as concerns raised at this week’s public liaison meeting.