Almost four months after the Voght Street bridge in Merritt collapsed, work to remove the debris is getting underway this week.

Speaking during a community information meeting on Thursday, Mar. 3, Darcey Hormann, the Critical Infrastructure Lead with the Merritt Recovery Operations Centre, said it will allow for the eventual replacement of the bridge – one of three that connects the Colletville neighbourhood to the rest of the community.

“Essentially, the contractors will be mobilizing in the next couple days, with that work planning to take about two to three weeks,” Hormann said.

“The purpose of that work is essentially to remove the collapsed span, the abutment or the concrete that the span was sitting on, and also the balance of that bridge, and that is to allow for the eventual replacement of that bridge with a new span.”

The Voght Street bridge collapsed sometime during the night of Nov. 15, 2021, or the early morning hours of Nov. 16. It meant residents who had not yet left their homes were trapped as the Main Street and Houston Street bridges were deemed to be potentially structurally unsafe.

“One of the first steps that we are doing is to conduct an assessment essentially of what we have remaining and what a replacement bridge would look like,” Hormann added. “Will it be two lanes with separated walking, biking lanes etc. and things like that. We’re looking at the cost and then we would assess it.”

“That bridge is intended to be rebuilt. The connectivity to the downtown core for residents in that area, the children for example can walk directly to school,” he added. “Finally, it is a big part of the future active transportation network along with the future planned walking path along the Coldwater River.”

However, Hormann says work to actually replace the Voght Street bridge is not expected to begin for several months.

“There will be essentially ongoing assessment to determine what to replace that with and when and then it would be moving on to essentially tender and construction but we wouldn’t expect to see anything really there near-term,” he added.

“That would be towards the end of this year, 2022, or into 2023.”