SITE

When first considering where a new bridge placement would be adequate along the Welland Canal, it seemed parallel to St. David’s Road in Thorold, an extension off Townline Road, would be significant. However, this land is protected by the Niagara Escarpment Plan. The Niagara Escarpment Plan has been set in place to satisfy four main objectives. The objectives are as follows; “1) To recognize, protect and where possible enhance the natural heritage and hydrological systems associated with the Niagara Escarpment Plan area, 2) To protect the most natural Escarpment features, valleylands, wetlands and related significant natural areas, 3) To conserve cultural heritage resources, including features and areas of interest to First Nations and Métis communities, 4) To encourage compatible recreation, conservation and educational activities, and 5) To maintain and enhance the scenic resources and open landscape character of the Escarpment” (Niagara escarpment plan, 2017). This caused a major shift in gears in the speculative bridge design. These protected areas become extremely hard to work around, sometimes impossible.

This led to the narrowing down between two new options. St. David’s Road itself, or Glendale Avenue. Both have high traffic areas, both have pre-existing structures that would need to be accounted for and considered. In order to build off of St. David’s Road, residential areas would have to be torn down thus making it nearly impossible. Looking at Glendale Avenue, we are already planning to construct a tunnel, so a bridge may not be of high priority. If the tunnel does its job, traffic flow will already be reduced in this area. So now the issue is this, we know that a bridge construction along the canal in similarity to the skyway would be extremely beneficial in lessening traffic and creating better transportation from one side of the canal to the other. But where would this be the most beneficial, keeping in mind practicalities?

PROPOSAL (in detail)

Looking at the Niagara Region Transportation Master Plan: Needs and Opportunities, it is clear that Niagara Falls is growing exponentially in Population and Employment and is predicted to continue growing through to 2041. St. Catharines, Thorold, and Welland however, have different employment predictions. It looks as though employment levels in St. Catharines and Thorold will continue to decrease before increasing again, and Welland will not see any change until an increase later on. This could mean that many employment opportunities for the increasing population in these three cities/towns will have to be looked for in the Niagara Falls area. We see that Port Robinson, Thorold is an area that is on the brink of major residential development. This lies right between Thorold and Welland and falls on either side of the Welland Canal. The East side begins to trickle right into Niagara Falls. The image below shows, in the red circled areas, where future developments are planned to occur. After factoring in all of these details, it is extremely clear that this would be the best location for a new bridge construction along the canal. With new coming developments, and employment rates plummeting but increasing on the other side of the canal, it would only make sense to create an efficient route of transportation in this area. The bridge will run from Bridge Street West; right off of Port Robinson Road, over the canal and onto Bridge Street East.

The reason these streets are named Bridge Street West and East, is because in 1974 what was known and numbered as lift Bridge Twelve fell to the ground. It was destroyed by a carrier boat and due to the heavy damage costs of an estimated twenty million dollars, it was scrapped entirely (Wikimedia Foundation, 2021). At the time, the funds were not available to deconstruct, and then reconstruct the entire bridge. It is understood that this will be a costly project, and we will need some sort of help. When looking at funding for building a bridge at this location, we would be submitting our proposal to the National and Regional Projects funding through the government of Canada. This funding is available for the construction of infrastructure that is nationally, or in this case regionally significant, and contributes to objectives such as economic growth (Canada, 2016). As mentioned above, the developing areas will have access to areas of higher employment rates, and the planned developments can commence. This will economically help the Niagara Region significantly.

PHASE TWO

In the yellow circle, is an existing Ferry service that allows individuals or groups to cross the canal. In replacement of this, Phase Two of our bridge design would include a Pedestrian lane, so that Pedestrians wishing to cross on foot or with bikes, that would normally take the ferry, can cross on the bridge. Another aspect of phase two would be to design and append barriers in support of Suicide Prevention. Unfortunately, it is too common of an occurrence that individuals commit suicide by jumping off of high bridges. We want to propose this bridge as a positive addition to the Niagara Region. So, in order to avoid any tragedies in relation to it, the barriers will go up in Phase Two of the construction, alongside the pedestrian lane.

MATERIALS

It has been proven time and time again that concrete, stone, metal, and steel are significant bridge materials that are used time and time again worldwide. They are practical and withstand different weather environments. This is important to take in consideration for the Welland Canal because here in Niagara we see hot summers, followed by extreme winters. The materials used in the Speculative design of this bridge are concrete, steel, and asphalt. There will be asphalt roads that lead into the pre-existing roads. We then propose a concrete deck, and concrete columns for bridge support. This may seem like a basic material to use, but given the weather conditions in Niagara, concrete is one of the most durable and reliable bridge materials. And lastly, we will use steel girders to resist shear stress on the bridge from heavy loads.