City to speed up demolition of iconic Calgary bridge

It’s outlived most current Calgarians and soon it will be a piece of our history, the city has announced it’s speeding up the demolition of the 12th Street S.E. bridge.

City officials tell 660 NEWS it’s deteriorating faster than anticipated so they made the decision to start tearing it apart this spring.

It moves their schedule ahead by a full year with things anticipated to finish by the fall of 2017.

According to Transportation, it helps with time lines for the community because if they had waited until 2018, they would have to close roads.

All of the major construction will be done this year while landscaping, public art and the commemoration will be done next year.

An artist will also be invited to see if there’s anything they can use from the old truss structure, built in 1908, to incorporate moving forward.

“While it is a nuisance, it’s something that we’ve been dealing with through the whole construction of the 12th Street bridge (it’s currently being built next to the existing structure),” said Manager of Communications Larissa Mark. “We have lots of systems and plans in place on how to mitigate construction.”

Mark says those coming to the zoo should have no problem in finding out how where they need to be.

She adds the North Gate remains open 364 days a year and there are still plenty of options along St. Georges Drive.

“The 12th Street bridge has served both the city of Calgary and the zoo very well over its 100 year history, while we’re sad to see the old bridge go, we’re looking forward to the new bridge and all that it will bring for us.”

Local residents and zoo officials had been the only ones using it, neighbours will be given two weeks notice before it closes permanently.