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“We are working with the City of London, London Transit, emergency services, University Hospital and other community stakeholders to communicate the closure and mitigate its impact.”

The decision to close the bridge was based on advice from a structural engineering firm hired to conduct a routine inspection, Connell said.

“Bridges are built to move, expand and contract with temperature and load. The heavier the load, the more damage to the structure of the bridge,” she said. “We need to close the bridge to make the necessary repairs.”

Coun. Phil Squire, in whose ward the university is located, said he’d only just learned of the closing.

“It will obviously cause a disruption,” he said, adding he couldn’t say much more because he wasn’t aware of the extent of the needed repairs.

“I just learned about it.”

The bridge closing also came as a surprise to Kelly Paleczny, head of the London Transit Commission (LTC) who said the disruption will affect bus routes 6, 13 and 106 starting Oct. 15.

“It’s a significant inconvenience to our riders,” she said. “It’s unfortunate, but we obviously can’t travel across a bridge that is closed.”

The closing may be a glimpse of what might be coming at the school where traffic is a major issue.

Western has said, to improve pedestrian safety on campus, when rapid transit service arrives there it plans to ban most drivers from the bridge as part of a broader car-free campus.

That includes closing the bridge to most vehicles, except rapid transit buses, ambulances, school shuttles and a few other vehicles.