This morning at 7am, the mayors of Locke Harbour East and the City State of Locke Harbour were on hand to mark the official opening of the Windigo Ave bridge linking the west end of Locke Harbour Island with the mainland.  

Almost 2 weeks after the Island south span was open, this additional roadway will provide much needed relief for residents on the island.

The bridge took 17 years, $750 million plus in taxpayer funds, 3 chief engineers, one partial bridge collapse, plus numerous other problems to become the most over-budget taxpayer expense ever.

Ask most Locke Harbour residents what they think about the bridge and you will find extreme disdain for the bridge.  'Should have never been built', noted one of the first early morning travelers across the span.

Other individuals were not as harsh, welcoming that fact that the bridge was finally open. 

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'...a perfect example of how not to build a bridge...'

-Zak Waway, Chief Engineer.

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The quest to build a link to the island had been talked about in Locke Harbour for over 50 years.  In the fall of 1987, bridge construction began originally approximately half a kilometre further north than the present location.  

Chief Engineer Zak Waway who worked as an assistant engineer at the time notes fondly of the original bridge, 'it was a project we worked on with pride'.

Alas that pride quickly turned to shame when it was realized that the ground where the bridge supports were to be built into was a mixture of clay coupled with, 'a type of quicksand', notes Waway.  'At first we tried to save the project, we came up with numerous techniques to deal with the problem however we did not anticipate that the ground would be as precarious as it was in the end'.

The project was abandoned less than a year into it which was followed by a meticulous assessment to determine where a bridge could be built safely from the west shore of the island.  'We wanted to complete the project, it was our goal to link the mainland with the island and we were going to succeed', notes Waway.

The Wilson Ave site was determined to be too unstable, so engineers started looking at 3 other areas south of the 'Wilson Mistake' as the bridge was dubbed by the media.

Meanwhile city council within a year had formulated a plan to build a bridge to the south shore.  In our interview with Waway, he noted that, 'I was extremely angry about the south-span bridge, I think our entire team was.  I still blame [city] councils decision in relation to that issue as to what caused Jolaws [the 1st Chief Engineer of the 'Wilson Link', Steve Jolaws] to have that heart attack.  The funeral was extremely depressing because we lost a good friend, plus we were fearful of losing our jobs in the upcoming days with the south span idea being announced.'

The link west from the Island was put on hold, some thought permanently, in 1990 as plans were being put forward to begin the south span link from the island.

'We never gave up hope though', notes Waway.  'The Wilson Link was a perfect example of how not to build a bridge in that we failed to take into account how unforgiving, and defeatist politicians could be on the issue.  It was still our intent to build that bridge and we finally succeeded in convincing them.

In 1995, just before construction on the south span was to begin, Zak Waway became the 3rd chief engineer of the bridge when council looked at and approved the idea about finding a route west from the island.  The new leader of the 'West Span' project as it was known during that period made sure that, 'anyone who was against it in council, we addressed their concerns and fears early, showing them that the Wilson Mistake would not happen again.  That definitely helped in making our lives easier on the job', noted Waway.

As of 1999 the project was back on track as council approved the new Windigo Ave route.  In November construction began on the new route.  'We still had cost overruns due to the somewhat unstable area in that region which we had to shore up, but it was still much better than the Wilson Ave site and in the end we built a bridge that will stand for a long long time', notes Waway.

The Windigo Ave bridge, connecting Locke Harbour Island, westward towards the mainland finally opens.