LITTLE CURRENT—Motorists can expect short delays due to maintenance being undertaken on the Little Current Swing Bridge over the next week.
“The Ministry of Transportation is carrying out repairs to the main ring gear on the bridge,” explained Gordan Rennie, Ministry of Transportation regional spokesperson. “This is follow-up work to the incident last July when the bridge was closed for a short period of time to weld a cracked tooth on the ring gear. The work involves removing segments of the cracked ring gear, sending the gear segments out for testing and refurbishment, and then re-installing the gear segments later this winter.”
“Starting today (Monday), work crews began to remove the segments of the cracked ring gear,” Mr. Rennie continued. “We anticipate work to remove the gear segments will take approximately 10 days. During this time, impacts to traffic will be minimal. There may be short duration road closures of 15 minutes or less between 3 am and 9 pm to lift materials and the gear segments on/off the main bridge pier. Any longer duration closures required to complete the work will be restricted between 9 pm and 3 am and limited to a maximum of 30 minutes.”
Once the gear segments are tested and refurbished, the work crews will return to the bridge site in mid- to late-February to reinstall the gear segments, Mr. Rennie said. “Again, traffic impacts will be minimal and any short-term road closures will be restricted as above.”
