Pedestrian overpass closed for safety
The city has closed the pedestrian overpass over Côte-Vertu Côte-de-Liesse at 32nd Avenue, saying it can no longer bear the weight of its users – but that it’s not going to fall on passing motorists. Walkers have to undertake a considerable hike to reach the next crossing of the highway so some are still illegally using the walkway.
Marc 07:08 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
Cote de Liesse, actually.
Kate 07:23 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
You are right. The 520 is Côte de Liesse.
Rebecca 07:27 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
Hi. Tiny correction: The pedestrian overpass in question is over Cote de Liesse between 32nd avenue east and 23rd avenue east. Here’s a link to the google map: http://g.co/maps/23h28
Chris 08:08 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
Let’s see if they fix it as fast they have patched up the Mercier and Turcot (at least enough to be open). Since it doesn’t affect motorists, only mere pedestrians, I imagine it will take years.
Bill Binns 09:02 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
So this concrete structure over a busy highway is in such poor condition that it can no longer safely support a few hundred pounds of pedestrians but there is no risk to it simply collapsing? I’m not a structural engineer but something doesn’t seem right with that. A 60kph gust of wind likely puts more load on that bridge than it ever gets from the weight of pedestrians.
Any engineers here?
Kate 09:03 on 2011/09/30 Permalink
Someone also pointed out on CBC Daybreak that a foot of snow will also weigh more than one or two pedestrians.
On thinking about it, though, it might not be specifically a question of the whole thing collapsing. I’ve been on a few of these overpasses and if this is like one I used recently (might have been that exact one) the concrete steps leading up to the steel stairs were in very poor shape, crumbling in places, verging on the unsafe – but this bad concrete was not over the highway.