Circle Drive Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the southern Circle Drive river crossing in Saskatoon, see Circle Drive South Bridge.
Circle Drive Bridge

Circle Drive Bridge
Official name Circle Drive Bridge
Carries 6 lanes of Circle Drive
Crosses South Saskatchewan River
Locale Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Maintained by City of Saskatoon
Design Girder bridge
Material Reinforced concrete, steel
Total length 275 metres (902 ft)
Number of spans 4
Piers in water 3
Opened Jul 1, 1983
(widening completed September 28, 2007)
Coordinates 52°9′12.87″N 106°38′5.06″W / 52.1535750°N 106.6347389°W / 52.1535750; -106.6347389Coordinates: 52°9′12.87″N 106°38′5.06″W / 52.1535750°N 106.6347389°W / 52.1535750; -106.6347389

Circle Drive Bridge spans the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a steel girder bridge, built in 1983 as part of the Circle Drive freeway system in northeast Saskatoon. At the time of construction, it cost $11.8 million to build.[1] It is presently the northernmost bridge in the city.

As with other bridges in the city, locals use several different names for this bridge. During construction there was an unsuccessful campaign to have it named after recently deceased former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Longtime Saskatonians also refer to it as the 42nd Street Bridge, a reference to a former name of the northern east-west leg of Circle Drive dating back to the 1960s; this name was also commonly applied to the bridge in media coverage and city council references to its planning and construction dating back to the early 1960s.

The Circle Drive Bridge is a twin span bridge; was designed so that more lanes could be added by filling in the centre. Early published plans for the bridge called for the addition of an observation deck/interpretive centre to the underside of the bridge at that point. However, rather than widening the bridge by filling in the centre gap, it was deemed to be more cost effective to convert the outside pedestrian walkways into driving lanes. In 2006, construction started on adding a third outside lane in both directions to increase capacity and ease congestion during peak traffic times. The lane additions were completed in 2007. A new pedestrian walkway was built below and between the two bridge structures, and opened in July 2007.[2] The walkway was dedicated as the Stew Uzelman Pedway on October 31, 2009.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "City of Bridges" (PDF). City of Saskatoon. Retrieved 2010-04-20. 
  2. ↑ Zacaruk, Jim; Mike Gutek (2008). "Circle Drive Widening" (PDF). Stantec Consulting/City of Saskatoon. Retrieved 2010-04-20. 
  3. ↑ "Circle Drive Pedestrian Bridge Dedicated" (PDF). Currents. City of Saskatoon. 2009. p. 5. Retrieved 2012-07-13. 
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.