Victoria city officials have closed the Johnson Street bridge to rail traffic after engineers discovered corrosion damage to key structural supports during a recent inspection.
Mayor Dean Fortin said council will have to decide whether to repair the rail section of the bridge or close it permanently a few months earlier than expected.
The rail bridge was slated to be removed in early 2012 to make way for construction of a new Johnson Street span without rail.
"Council's going to have to consider how much money do we invest in a bridge to keep it open to rail for the next 10 months or do we call it a day," Fortin said.
The repairs would take about four weeks. Council has yet to receive a cost estimate, Fortin said.
The E&N Dayliner has not been using the bridge while Southern Railway performs maintenance work to the track. The service was slated to resume next week, but now will have to find a temporary stop in Vic West.
"When you receive a formal written document by the Engineer of Record saying, 'Mr. Mayor, this bridge is not safe for rail traffic. You need to close it today.' You act on that," Fortin said.
The Island Corridor Foundation is scheduled to meet with city staff Monday to discuss the issue, executive director Graham Bruce said.
"We know the bridge is old; that's not something that's new to anybody," he said. "But we need to look at what it is required to be done, and then the associated costs with that."
Engineers with Stantech Consulting Ltd. found significant deterioration to steel hanger supports at four locations on the bridge. In some spots, engineers could see daylight through the steel.
"It's just been corroding over the years," structural engineer Paul Dudzinski said. "It's not necessarily a fatal condition in itself, but you'd want to get in there a fix it before you load it up again."
The bridge remains safe for pedestrian and cyclist traffic at the moment, but repairs would be required even for that limited use in the future, he said.
"It's adequate for that, but certainly for it to be continued as a pedestrian bridge for the next six to eight months or whatever, at least there's two repairs that have to be done."
Council will discuss the repair options and cost estimates at its governance and priorities committee meeting April 7.
"We knew this day was coming," Fortin said. "It just came sooner than expected."
The road section of the Johnson Street bridge requires some minor repairs which will begin Sunday. The road will be closed from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The last structural inspection of the bridge took place in 2008, but the city says that staff do weekly visual inspections and repairs to ensure its safety.
The city held a referendum in November and won approval to borrow $49.2 million to replace the bridge, which was deemed by city engineers to be too costly to repair and bring up to seismic standards.
Last month, councillors decided against including a rail crossing as part of the $77 million project, because they were unable to get a firm financial commitment from other partners.
