I accidentally deleted some of the photos of the bridge I had posted on Facebook, perhaps when changing the Page identity. No worries I'll find them and post them with the entries below that are affected.

You know, things were getting kind of stale talking about the bridge and I was already looking at other projects to focus my attention on. Up until now I can't recall if I even mentioned which companies were working on the project or made any reference whatsoever to the workers on the site (nor have I ever the latter since my issue is with what the City wasted on this project and not the employment provided for people - including those from BC and Quebec).

In fact one day I was thanked by one of the office staff for shoveling the sidewalk regularly on 53rd Avenue where they parked. She appreciated it even if the Tyler's of the project might not have.

​But thanks to Tyler, who is apparently working on site at the CPR Bridge Rehabilitation, I have a renewed interest not only in this wasteful project but in all of the companies involved in it. Thanks, I will be paying special attention to Graham Construction & Engineering, Mammoet Crane Services, and any other company names that come up in reference to this project. Thanks to Red Deer & Area News for also picking up this story and will be paying attention too.

I wonder, if you spend your working day trolling people on Facebook is that why the bridge project is a month behind from what we can see? Are you responsible for that Tyler? Good luck in your endeavours, you'll probably need it - or at the very least to focus on your job and not worry what taxpayers are saying about the bridge project.

Follow the progress, or lack thereof, of this project on the City of Red Deer website page.

Publicly accessible sidewalks, trails and bridges that you can go to see different angles of this publicly funded project on public land.

Text: ​Truss lift and move begins January 1, 2026.
The crane capable of performing this task APPEARS to have just arrived February 10, 2026. This means, by their schedule, that this project is already one month behind.
I've been following this bridge project for about a year now and it was getting kind of redundant. I mean how many times can you photograph part of a project (the rest hidden behind a fence). I was already looking at other things to be interested in and talk about here. But thanks to the comments I recently received from an alleged employee on site, I've taken a renewed interest in it and the companies involved.
So, how much will this one month delay add to the already ridiculous cost of $23.1 Million for this project. I'll bet there's lots of overtime to be had these days eh?

I love how everyone is telling me what the CPR bridge is like. I live literally 100 metres away from the bridge.

​I think I have an idea of the traffic levels that took place on "The Stabby Bridge" or "Homeless Highway" before construction started. If you want a cycle across it, you do it in groups of 2 to 10 people, otherwise, you don't cross the bridge alone. As soon as the sun goes down, you don't cross the bridge. If you want to be solicited narcotics (as I have), or threatened by individuals with clear mental health issues (as I and my neighbors have), you don't cross the bridge. This bridge is primarily used for the transient population to walk from Cannery Row/Skid Row, (the homeless shelter and OPS), to the Mustard Seed on 60th Street and back. From the Mustard Seed on 60th to just south of the Superstore is referred to as 'the Red Mile'. Now whether that relates to the number of red flashing lights that frequent the area or the amount of blood spilt is debatable.

I'm very well aware of the 8-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week of non-stop construction noise, which includes their brief attempts to work on holidays like Labour Day.

58th Street, 52nd Avenue, 53rd Avenue are all open to the public (for now), you're welcome to come down and see and hear what the residents of lower Riverside Meadows have had to endure.

Last night*, the video I provided of the compressor noise, went to just before 10:00 p.m. That has been going on for the last 5 months. Obviously this video is affected by a smartphone designed to filter background noise, a low-tech sound level app, and other noise. If you don't like my videos and have better equipment you're more than welcome to come down and record it yourself. I'm curious where you've been for the last 6 months if you're so interested in preserving the bridge. And if you want to talk sound levels, this neighborhood is relatively quiet, with the majority of the background noise coming from Gaetz Avenue two blocks away and a fire station, albeit closed far too many recently, to the north.

They are not preserving history with this Rehabilitation. They have removed the former 57th Street overpass, which was built at the same time as the bridge but curiously not historic. They are replacing the wood walking deck. They are replacing several of the steel girders. They're giving it a new paint job, the only good thing to happen since we spend years painting over the lead paint. They are picking up and moving the bridge about 20 m. They are replacing the concrete support columns. They are replacing the entry points to the bridge. They have replaced the street lights and are completely remodeling the parks at either end of the bridge. They are adding new lighting and security cameras. It was a historical Bridge, it won't be much longer.

Just because something is old doesn't mean we should spend millions of dollars trying to preserve it.
While other cities are looking to the Future, Red Deer has wasted time and money clinging to the Past.
To tear down the bridge would have cost $6-8 million dollars. To preserve the bridge is costing over $22 million ($11 million is Red Deer taxpayers portion). To replace the "critical bridge" (which we seem to be able to survive for 1.5 years without), we can probably use the c-b Bridge proposal as a guide, and that would cost $50 million. I did the math the other day, with $3.5 million dollars we could have bought 45 tiny homes to help shelter the homeless in a transitional program. Since this money was earmarked for infrastructure, I'm sure there were other projects, that Council won't tell you about, that the money could have been used for. Or we could have just held on to it.

It is interesting how at the time they claimly had no other infrastructure projects to be concerned with, yet just a few years later we're spending tens of millions of dollars on infrastructure projects. Perhaps this is because our municipal development plan is 13 years old?

They claim we would have lost the Federal Grant for active infrastructure upgrades. You and I both know that the Federal government hands out billions of dollars each year in Grants. If we didn't accept this one another one would have come along. I'll bet there's even a Federal Grant to help remove dangerous infrastructure.

It's curious that a bridge, which should have been inspected every 10 to 20 years, went from needing a paint job one day to 2 years later being ready to collapse and having to be replaced. Either there's more going on than we're being told, or several people really dropped the ball when it came to doing their jobs. I'm going to guess it's the first one.

Either way the money is wasted and the outgoing council members will have their legacy to speak of for years to come. This paragraph for their future autobiographies will only cost about $100 each to every man, woman and child living in Red Deer.