‘Historic day’: Section of Arlington Bridge removed

The first pieces of the deteriorating Arlington Bridge were removed Thursday morning.

To continue reading, please subscribe: Digital Subscription One year of digital access for only $205* - Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com - Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper - Access News Break, our award-winning app - Play interactive puzzles To continue reading, please subscribe: Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional $1 for the first 4 weeks* The first pieces of the deteriorating Arlington Bridge were removed Thursday morning. A portion of the bridge directly above the CPKC railway lines was the first to be taken away as part of a two-year demolition project to take down the bridge, which was built in 1912 and closed suddenly in November 2023 due to structural issues.

Mayor Scott Gillingham called it a “historic day” while crews worked on the bridge Thursday morning. “Today marks the start of what council has decided needs to happen. The bridge needs to come down,” Gillingham told reporters outside of the blocked-off bridge.

“There’s also money in our budget for the design of the new bridge that will be worked on as well.” Decommissioning and removing the bridge will occur in two stages: the first will involve removing the south part of the bridge from Logan Avenue into the CPKC yard, and the second phase, slated to begin in 2027, will work north at Dufferin Avenue. “This is a very intricate project, you can appreciate there’s over 50 sets of tracks that this bridge spans that are active,” said Gillingham.

“And so to take the bridge down is going to take some time.” No full road closures are anticipated during the first phase of work. Traffic in the area of Logan Avenue and Arlington Street will be “intermittently affected,” according to a press release from the city.

City council approved $17 million to decommission and remove the bridge in January 2025, and $5 million to begin designing a new bridge. Design work and funding to construct a new bridge will be considered by council in the future. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

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