The Town of Newmarket has given a refresh to a portion of the Tom Taylor Trail with the replacement of a pedestrian bridge near Queen Street.
The town put the bridge in place Aug. 29, reopening it on the same day. Workers lifted the bridge by a crane on the west pathway next to the radial arch.
The town said an engineer determined the municipality should replace the bridge to ensure continued safety in community use.
“Thanks to some precise manoeuvring from Newmarket’s parks and engineering teams, the new pedestrian bridge on Tom Taylor Trail near Queen St. has been installed and is open,” the municipality said on social media.
The municipality inspects bridges regularly as part of its asset management plan. The vast majority, 95 per cent, of the town’s bridges were evaluated to be in “fair” condition in the 2021 asset management plan, with bridges on average having gone through 63 per cent of their lifespan
The town previously closed the west side of the trail to make repairs to the bridge in July. Both bridge projects are independent of the ongoing repairs happening to the Queen Street bridge.
Director of engineering services Rachel Prudhomme said that even though the town does not salt its bridges in the winter, salt is one of the things that can still deteriorate bridges over time.
“Salt does make its way onto the bridges as pedestrians’ boots pick it up and deposit the salt on the bridge deck. With freeze-thaw cycles, the salt makes its way through the deck and to the steel that supports it, which can cause more rapid corrosion. This can shorten the life span of a bridge,” she said.
The main difference between the previous bridge and the new one is that the new one is coated underneath with a special paint to help offset any corrosion in the under structure, Prudhomme said.
“With the new corrosion-resistant coating, the bridge is expected to last between 35 to 40 years.”
