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Demolishing Arlington Bridge a step closer

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/01/24/demolishing-arling...

The City of Winnipeg is on track to take on another $20 million in debt to begin the long-awaited replacement of the closed Arlington Bridge.

Council’s executive policy committee approved a $22-million plan to demolish the bridge, which is between Logan and Dufferin avenues, and start designing its replacement, on Friday. The plan would also draw $2 million from Winnipeg’s share of federal gas tax revenues this year, pending final council approval of the 2025 budget.

Mayor Scott Gillingham confirmed the plan is to eventually replace the bridge.

“That’s what we’re moving toward. There’s funds here now to … demolish the decommissioned bridge because we are paying money every year just for maintenance to keep that decommissioned bridge up. There’s also funds there to do design work as a next step to moving forward to building the bridge,” said Gillingham.

The Arlington Bridge, which opened in 1912, closed suddenly on Nov. 21, 2023, due to structural concerns, raising questions about its future.

In November, the city released a proposal to replace the bridge at its current location. It would cost $166 million, plus up to $27 million more in interest, and require six years to build.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, council’s finance chairman, said the bridge is a critical link between communities and must be demolished to protect the rail lines below it.

“It’s going to have to come down. We know that. I’ve spoken to engineers … and they’ve suggested if we don’t do it now, it’s going to be more expensive to take it apart later. I think this is a smart investment to deal with it now,” said Browaty.

Council’s public works committee had approved a motion that would earmark $30 million of future years’ funding for the bridge, along with a “first charge” to allow $20 million to be spent this year.

Gillingham said officials worked to refine early cost estimates after that vote, leading the new total to drop by $8 million.

The mayor’s inner circle also approved a call to let Downtown Community Safety Partnership move into the shuttered community connections space at Millennium Library for a two-month pilot project from April 1, 2025 to May 31, 2025.

Then there is Millennium for All, an advocacy organization that has fought against reductions in funding for the downtown library. That group wants community connections restored to its previous form and is skeptical of the new proposal.

One representative of Millennium for All said the proposal would bring a “police-oriented” presence to the library, which is not what advocates want.

Let’s dispense with some of the misconceptions critics could use to derail this worthy idea.

DCSP is not a “police-oriented” presence. Its outreach workers are not trained in law enforcement, they are trained to navigate social services and intervene with addictions and mental- health crises. They wear a uniform of sorts, but look a lot more like couriers than police officers.

And for the record, the library is absolutely the right place to provide this kind of support.

Millennium remains one of the last truly open, public spaces in the downtown. All kinds of people who need help connecting with public services already use the library, which has computers, printers and a host of staff to help people apply for identification, government support, housing and health care. For many newcomers, the library is their first stop in building a new life in Canada.

Finally, thanks to the fact that the safety partnership is already widely supported by government and other entities, the proposal to move into space in the Millennium Library comes at no additional cost to the city.

It’s win (for the city, which is tight for money), win (for DCSP, which needs a storefront presence), and win for the people downtown who need help navigating public services.

Who would try to derail a win-win-win proposition like this? One can only hope that it’s no one.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.camailto:dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca