The Fringe Festival kicks off this week amid construction on the Broadway Bridge that is slated to last until October.  CEO of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, Jason Aebig, feels the Broadway Business Improvement District has done a good job of helping people navigate the Broadway Avenue area during construction.

“It’s also presenting a really interesting opportunity where Broadway feels a bit more like a pedestrian street than it does a flow-thru street and that presents opportunities for any retail or restaurant owner along that strip to provide a different experience,” he suggested.  Aebig adds, “If you look only a couple years ago when the city was initiating a major infrastructure upgrade up and down Broadway, that had a huge impact because that literally cut people off from the front doors of businesses. This year that is not case, there is access to those businesses.”

The work underway includes concrete deck repairs, waterproofing replacement, new asphalt, new traffic barriers, improvements to the multi-use pathways and the pedestrian section of the bridge.  There are also both a watermain and gas line under the bridge that aren’t being used anymore, so they will be removed.

There will also be a re-design of the intersection at the bottom of the bridge at 4th Avenue to make it safer and in preparation for Bus Rapid Transit. The traffic island and centre medians will be removed, and pedestrian signals will be added. As well, four Link stations will be built on Broadway Avenue, causing partial lane closures.

The construction work will mean the bridge, the pedestrian walkway, Broadway Avenue, Saskatchewan Crescent, 19th Street and 3rd and 4th Avenue traffic will be affected.