City, Capilano residents at odds over footbridge closure
Construction on the Capilano footbridge means the bridge is temporarily off limits to pedestrians – but some are choosing to ignore closure signage.
Nicole Wolfe, director of Open Space Infrastructure Delivery at the City of Edmonton, said Capilano Park, located on the south side of the river near 50 Street, is undergoing construction to improve lighting, benches, parking and underground renewal.
The closure of the popular Capilano footbridge— which a quarter of a million people used last summer — has left Edmontonians frustrated with the lack of trail detours.
“It would have been awesome to see the city place signage on top of the hill so people don’t need to descend all the way down,” said pedestrian Stephen Raitz. “The detour to the west would be about a 7-kilometre walk or bike ride.”
Following the suggested detour would take anywhere from 50 to 80 minutes. Raitz said there was not enough notice.
“We would hope to see the city add some way finding signage further up and do some outreach with community leagues or community organizations,” he said.
But Wolfe said the lack of signage is largely due to people removing them.
“We’ve had quite a journey with signage actually. There has been lots of signage put out and we have increased the amount of signage but a lot of it seems to be removed, damaged, vandalized and thrown in places that we can not get it,” she said.
Wolfe explains workers are having a “heck of a time” getting people to obey closure signage. She said the active construction site is not safe for pedestrians.
“We are really having some significant issues with behaviour,” she said. “At this point, we're trying to do our best by asking people to remove themselves from site.”
Wolfe said the construction workers do daily fence checks to make sure people are not pushing through.
The project is expected to end July 31.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.