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Short-sighted bridge

Editor: Re: proposed Muskrat Street pedestrian bridge Banff Town council has approved and is moving forward on a pedestrian bridge/sewage line hider that will extend from the end of Muskrat Street to Glen Avenue on the south side of the Bow River to

Editor:

Re: proposed Muskrat Street pedestrian bridge

Banff Town council has approved and is moving forward on a pedestrian bridge/sewage line hider that will extend from the end of Muskrat Street to Glen Avenue on the south side of the Bow River to just below the YWCA.

Town council has been inspecting the state of the sewage lines and has made it a priority to replace the old sewage lines before they break and Banff has an environmental disaster on our hands.

Council also identified the difficulty to access the south side of the river for emergency vehicles during peak season and have been trying to figure out a better way to direct foot traffic to downtown for both residents and visitors. After looking at many options council has decided that the best way deal with the issue is to kill two birds with one stone and build a bridge at Muskrat Street that will serve to hide the sewage lines and get people across the river.

This is a short-sighted solution that only alleviates the issues of the sewage lines. I live on Rainbow Avenue on the south side of the river and my concern is that the bridge will not be in the most convenient location to move foot traffic. Most of the people who live on the south side of the river live in Middle Springs, Valley View or Cave Avenue. Anyone I’ve talked to say they would never use a Muskrat Street bridge because it’s out of their way. Town council has already spent $475,000 on plans for a pedestrian bridge that extends from Central Park to the Luxton Museum. This plan that received 77 per cent approval from residents would allow access for emergency vehicles and would filter foot traffic into the downtown core, where it should be, not into two of the oldest residential communities in town.

A Central Park bridge is far more accessible for visitors and will get them to where they want to be, downtown, the Administration grounds or the Cave and Basin, not in someone’s back yard. It would also be a much better traffic flow for the people who pay most of the taxes in town, the businesses.

I understand the urgency to fix the sewage lines. Council has a number of options to fix that, the best of which is to run the lines up the north side of the river and under the existing bridge and then down the south side to the treatment plant.

I also understand the need to get emergency vehicles across the river. Is the solution for that building a bridge that will only be used during peak season and long weekends? Perhaps a better solution is a small fire station with one small truck on the south side in case of emergency.

Town Council thinks they’re saving money with this project but they are building a white-elephant.

Peter Christou,

Banff

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