Calling the three concepts “Echo,” “Motion” and “Rendez vous,” the NCC presented three possibilities to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge.
The National Capital Commission has unveiled the three short-listed design concepts chosen to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge interprovincial crossing.
The designs, revealed at Tuesday’s NCC board meeting, now begin a 24-day public engagement process, including open houses Wednesday evening in Gatineau and Thursday evening in Ottawa.
The first design, dubbed Echo, is a modern copy of the existing truss bridge with three piers in the river, a 210-metre main span and a profile that maintains the distinctive shape of the Alexandra’s silhouette.
The design is a “reinterpretation of the existing historic structure, but it’s not a replica,” said Martin Knight, chief architect for the design team.
“It honours the original bridge while remaining in scale with the landscape and Kiweki Point.”
The second design, Rendez vous, features a pair of arches with spans of 290 metres and 220 metres meeting at a single pier in the river. The arches would be 15 metres higher than the existing towers, but would be more transparent than the trusses of the existing bridge and designed to “amplify views,” Knight said.
Rendez vous “highlights the river as the defining environmental and social component of the landscape,” he said. “It appears to step lightly in the Kitchissippi (Ottawa River) with a pair of graceful arches meeting at water level acknowledging the river’s importance to the Algonquin Nation.”
The third design — Motion — features one primary arch and two secondary arches and “is inspired by the flow of the Ottawa River and in particular, the eel,” Knight said. Its design “ripples up and down from end to end… and reflects the eel’s motion.”
The replacement is led by Public Services and Procurement Canada with the NCC managing the public engagement process.
The Gatineau open house is Wednesday, Oct. 2, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the River View Salon of the Canadian Museum of History. The second open house in Ottawa is Thursday, Oct. 3, in the Gatineau Salon of the Shaw Centre, again from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Online public consultations will run from Oct. 1 to 24.
Built in 1901, the Alexandra Bridge is currently closed to vehicles for repairs and isn’t expected to reopen until February 2025. When open, the bridge carries 10 per cent of the daily vehicle traffic between Ottawa and Gatineau, according to PSPC.
Despite numerous refits and repairs, corrosion, mainly from road salt, has taken a toll on the structure and other elements of the bridge have buckled and bent. The bridge has now reached the end of its life and must be replaced, PSPC says.
The new span will be “designed in a way to avoid corrosion-prone structures and details,” said Stefan Dery, director general of infrastructure asset management for PSPC.
“The entire region will benefit from a safer, reliable and sustainable interprovincial bridge that will improve vehicle traffic, provide dedicated pedestrian and cyclist spaces, commemorate the heritage of the existing Alexandra Bridge, provide a safe and accessible route for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and sightseers and provide generous space with well-defined and separate space for vehicles and active transportation,” Dery told the NCC board.
Demolition of the old bridge is expected to begin in 2028 and a new bridge is expected to be in place by 2032, according to the PSPC.
Dery was asked after the meeting what would happen if the public response is to keep the existing bridge.
“From our perspective this is a health and safety issue,” Dery said. “The state of the existing bridge is such that it has a finite life. It’s reached the end of its service so we’re not in a position to simply repair the bridge.”
