Mill Creek Pedestrian Bridges

The Mill Creek Ravine is a beloved part of Edmonton’s extensive River Valley trail system, used by pedestrians, cyclists, cross-country skiers, and dog-walkers year-round, and providing a ribbon of green right in the heart of the city. The Mill Creek Pedestrian Bridges project was initiated to replace or rehabilitate five aging pedestrian bridges that link several kilometers of nature trails located in the area.

Although the original trestle bridges were built from hardy local timber, designed to carry the weight of freight trains, 40 years later the time had come to repair and upgrade them. Three of the bridges were wood trestle and needed to be rehabilitated; the remaining two were glulam bridges that had to be replaced. The results from the Concept Design stage determined that the project would proceed with a strategy of repairing rather than replacing the existing bridges while removing in-stream piers.

SMA was retained to facilitate Value Engineering in order to help the team review possible solutions and generate new ideas and design strategy improvements. SMA facilitated workshops for value engineering, constructability, and risk management, which focused primarily on public space, pedestrian trail rehabilitation, and stakeholder involvement dealing with complex construction and environmental issues in a major public park space.

The workshops were used to drive key decisions as well as to identify constructability issues and risks. In addition, SMA performed range estimating to establish confidence in the pre-tender estimate. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, allowing the public to continue enjoying the trails in the ravine in safety and comfort.