Cameron Street Bridge
Watch the Construction!
View the Cameron Street webcam here.
About the Closure of Cameron Street Bridge
The Cameron Street Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in late September 2005, due to significant deterioration of members in the 75 year old timber structure. Bridge traffic is currently re-routed to and from Highway 97, via Carney Street, and 5th Avenue. While traffic is heavier on the detour route, staff believes that levels of service are acceptable with most delays occurring on Highway 97 between 5th Avenue and 15th Avenue. In anticipation of the deteriorating bridge condition Council had received and approved a plan for replacing the bridge in November 2004. This plan included the entire replacement of the existing bridge in approximately its same location and can be found here (UMA Report ). The proposed bridge would be two-lanes wide with allowance for pedestrians and cyclists.
The unexpected closure of the existing bridge has prompted further development of options for a lower cost bridge replacement plan. In December 2005, Council approved an investigation to determine the feasability of re-using the existing bridge support system for a new replacement superstructure. The resulting report titled Cameron Street Bridge - Structural Feasability Study and Conceptual Design Report from September 2006, in PDF format (73.58MB) including the Staff Report to Council [PDF] is linked here for convenience.
In December 2006, Council approved a budget for the detailed design of the bridge. A number of experienced bridge designers submitted proposals to supply design services to the City. The City selected Associated Engineering Services BC Ltd to undertake the functional design and to prepare tender ready detailed design drawings and related documents.
In September 2007, the Federal and Provincial Governments announced the award of a $1M grant from each level of government under the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (MRIF) towards the bridge reconstruction project.
In October 2007, staff reported to Council (report to Council) on the outcomes of the Functional Design by the City’s Consultant. A conventional signalized intersection for the southern bridge approach to River Road and a Roundabout to the northern bridge approach to North Nechako Road-PG Pulpmill Road were recommended. The proposed roundabout at the northern approach is less costly to install and has lower operating costs when compared to a conventional signalized intersection. It will be the first roundabout installation in a public roadway in Prince George. A smaller private roundabout already exists at the Treasure Cove Casino site.
Modeling for one lane versus a two lane entry for the North Nechako and Northbound Bridge legs and for lanes in the roundabout has been evaluated. One lane approaches resulted in estimated delay times of approximately one minute during peak periods, and less than 10 seconds for all approaches in the morning and afternoon peak periods with two lanes. It is worthwhile noting that in the afternoon peak period, the northbound Bridge Ramp approach leg is anticipated to have approximately 50% of this traffic turning west to North Nechako Road and 50% continue to the north to Hwy 97. With two lanes in the roundabout, both of these movements can occur simultaneously.
Additional Information on roundabouts is available on the Ministry of Transportation website located at: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/popular-topics/roundabouts/roundabouts.htm