SOUND OFF: Overlanders Bridge rehabilitation frustrating for commuters, taxpayers
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AFTER A GREAT DEAL OF FRUSTRATION with regards to the rehabilitation of the Overlanders Bridge, I began to question this project on a number of levels — primarily the frequency and cost in which rehabilitation is being conducted, as well as the obvious traffic and safety impact. Initially, I sent a request for answers to the City of Kamloops Civic Operations. While I appreciated receiving a response, it only added to my concerns.
I expressed my frustration at the level of congestion and concern at the safety and wellbeing of the citizens — primarily north of the Thompson River. I questioned about access to RIH given the rehabilitation work and recent work on Columbia Street. I was told by the City of Kamloops that this is one of the most frustrating challenges and that it is being monitored by a professional traffic engineer. I find this to be a statement rather than a response.
I pointed out that very often when I cross the bridge, I only see four workers and a few times a fifth. The city explained, “The contractor is starting early and completing their shift prior to the evening rush. Much of the work is constrained by cure times. The concrete and liquid applied membranes need a prescribed amount of time before they can move to the next step. When you don’t see them, their shift is either over as they started work at 4:00 a.m., or they are waiting for a section to cure before moving to the next step. I am sure you’d agree that quality is paramount. They need to take the time that is needed to ensure the highest quality work is handed over.” While this explains what they are doing, it doesn’t answer why, in a cordoned off area, they cannot be doing multiple things at once and still not impact traffic flow.
My real concern is with the frequency in which the city has undertaken rehabilitation projects. The bridge was constructed between 1960 and 1962, with the first rehabilitation work being in 1989 — 27 years later. The next rehabilitation then occurred in 2015 — 26 years later — and now this rehabilitation in 2025, 10 years later. Hopefully, you can see what I am getting at. Without any other explanation, I assume that the 2015 project was not properly supervised or the quality of work was very inferior to previous years. I am not an engineer, but in a search of numerous bridges of similar and greater demand, the only other bridge I could find in the province that had a major rehabilitation conducted in as few as 14 years involved a bridge expansion. According to the information from published structural engineers, rehabilitation on bridge decks can occur between 10 and 30 years, depending on a number of conditions. I could not find one municipality in my searches, BC and beyond that adhere to a 10-year schedule. From the response I received from the city I now know that the City of Kamloops has taken the most aggressive, proactive approach of every 10 years for bridge rehabilitation regardless of impacting conditions. I was told they base this schedule on a professional engineer’s opinion.
