Crews to fix crack at base of pedestrian bridge as city figures out who should pay for repairs

Work will begin this summer to repair a crack in the base of the pedestrian bridge between the East Village and St. Patrick's Island.

The George C. King bridge, which cost $25 million, opened in 2014. Which is why the crack took everyone by surprise.

The 10- to 15-centimetre long crack on a steel beam on the south side of the bridge showed up last August, causing the temporary closure of the bridge for inspection. It reopened last September.

"The good news is, it wasn't as cumbersome as we originally thought it was going to be and it's something we'll be able to have done this year," said Michael Brown with the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation.

The work will get underway this summer and the bridge will stay open during the repair.

The city still doesn't know who might end up paying the half-a-million-dollar cost for the fix.

That's because it still isn't clear if the crack was due to an unforeseen design problem, or if it was a construction problem. 

"We're right now going through a process to see if we can utilize insurance that's used by the consultants as well as the contractors to meet the cost associated with that," Brown said. "We've also had a number of conversations with legal counsel."

The crack could lead to legal issues.

"It would be outside of warranty," Brown said. "The question becomes, is, was it an issue of the design or was it the issue of the implementation of the design? And that's what we're working through right now," he said.

"If it's an issue of the design, that would make the engineer or the architect who would be essentially responsible for that. If it's the implementation of the design, it would be the construction team."

Once the work is completed, Brown says the bridge to St. Patrick's Island will look as it did on opening day.