08-03-2023, 09:21 AM
(08-03-2023, 04:43 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: The gap in the barriers over the bridge are likely to do with the bridge span itself, I'm guessing the barrier begins and ends on the bridge abutment, which is sitting on the ground.
The bridge span itself is a civil engineering component, and the city staff would have to hire an engineer to validate that the bridge is able to support an increased static load that would come from the concrete barriers, which would cost a lot of money.
The same thing was done on the Lexington bridge, although in that case, I think it was less cost and more jurisdiction, because the MTO owns the bridge over the highway, not the city. But AFAIK the city owns the railway bridge.
I emailed the city about the gap in barriers over the Margaret Ave bridge. The response I received is here:
The barriers need to be pinned into the asphalt so they don’t get dislodged by vehicles or snow plows. This can create little holes that over time allow water to seep in. Not a big deal for a regular road. But for a bridge, water seepage can threaten the structural integrity of the bridge and significantly reduce its lifespan. This was a risk we didn’t want to take. We will monitor the location to ensure drivers are remaining in their designated lane of traffic.