Peace Bridge to close as repairs on glass panels begin

Calgary's most iconic river crossing will find no peace this summer as city crewswork to replace cracked and broken glass panels on the bridge's span.

• Peace Bridge vandalism in Calgary causing repair problems for city

The Peace Bridge will be closed every night between July 18 and Aug. 10 as the difficult work of replacing the panels takes place.

"The long story short is we've actually had to get a company to make a special piece of equipment to actually sort of run along the top roof of the Peace Bridge to slide those panels in," said Sean Somers, with the city's transportation department.

He said the some of the damage has been caused by vandalism.

"You can see that somebody's hit it with something, whether it's a brick, or a rock or a bat, I don't know, but you can see there's clearly an impact that's caused the break," he said.

"Like any other infrastructure in Calgary, this is something that we need to maintain."

The estimated total cost of the repairs, including the specialized equipment, is $150,000.

Somers saidthe city will do its best to accommodate people needing to move in and out of the area during the Folk Festival, which starts on July 21.

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