The city held a public open house Thursday at Fred A. Hamilton school for people to see the designs and ask questions of the new Niska Road Bridge.
City staff and representatives of Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions, the company that designed the bowstring arch bridge, were on hand.
Road work on the south side of the bridge continues and the bridge itself is expected to be started in mid-August with an anticipated opening next spring.
The biggest change from the old one-lane bridge, which needed to be removed because it was no longer structurally sound, is that the new bridge is two lanes, with a three-metre wide multi-use path on the upstream side of the bridge.
Concerns remain about traffic volume, in particular trucks, using the bridge as a shortcut to avoid several traffic lights on the Hanlon Expressway.
The entire project carries a $6 million price tag.
"A lot of people are just happy to see it moving forward," said Ken Vander Wal, the city's project engineer overseeing the project.
"To say that the concerns that were brought forward at the open houses previously are all gone? They're not," Vander Wal said, singling out traffic and trucks as two examples.
VanderWal agreed that there is a limited footprint for which to do the project and added there is also "competing feedback from the community on what to do."
"We have to do what's right, but within what's right, weigh out what the public wants, but they're not always in agreement either."
VanderWal said there were some minor design elements to help offset speed at the location, with the bridge being slightly vertically offset and there are curbs and gutters, narrowing the lanes.
"We can only do so much. We may come back and do extras, but what we've done was done based on the feedback from the previous open house," he said.
Steve Versteegen of Wood Environment said the bridge will be built in sections elsewhere then assembled at the location.
Environmental considerations, including no work in the Speed River during certain spawning times, are in place.
Tree Removal has previously taken place and no further tree removal is anticipated, says the city.
