Apex celebrates new ‘safer’ bridge into neighbourhood
Party for all ages held at Nanook School gymnasium
A parade of parents and children tie balloons on the fence Saturday along the pedestrian walkway attached to the new, double-lane Apex bridge. The balloons bore handwritten names of loved ones. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Updated Nov. 18, 2024, at 2:10 p.m. ET
The spirit and history of the Apex bridge that spans the Niaqunguk River exudes a do-it-yourself work ethic.
People in Apex built the bridge, which served the community for nearly 70 years, in 1955 alongside members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That community-led tradition carried on Saturday with a party to celebrate a freshly built 25-metre, double-lane truss replacement bridge that opened last week.
The previous bridge offered no pedestrian path and only one traffic lane. Drivers’ habits to compensate for those design limitations lingered over the weekend as some continued to pull over to let oncoming traffic pass, Nunatsiaq News observed.
“It’s huge. It’s very wide,” said Joe Kunuk, an Apex-born resident who attended the party held in the Nanook School gymnasium.
James Murdoch-Flowers, age 10, helped organize snacks for the community celebration. He said he approves of the new bridge because it is safer for pedestrians, with a sidewalk flanked by fencing.
“You don’t have to risk crashing into a car,” he said.
The old structure was Bailey bridge-style, meaning it was pre-fabricated and designed to be portable, left over as Canadian army surplus from the Second World War.
The province of Ontario purchased the surplus, and the federal Department of Northern Affairs bought the bridge from the province once Apex residents and U.S. army engineers began brainstorming ways to bring in new infrastructure.
Before it was installed in 1955, a simple span built of wooden planks spaced a few inches apart served as a pedestrian crossing at a narrow point along the river bank, closer to the bay.
Apex resident Martha Tikivik said she remembers crossing the precarious pedestrian bridge on her way to the Hudson Bay store in the 1950s. Tikivik was a guest of honour at the community celebration Saturday.
“I’m very happy with the outcome,” she told Nunatsiaq News in Inuktitut, interpreted with the help of her son Dinos Tikivik.
The single-lane Bailey bridge was removed by crane in one day on Aug. 10. The new bridge officially opened to traffic Nov. 13.
Note: This article was corrected to attribute the quote to Martha Tikivik.
Martha Tikivik, front, and Leetia Jeffrey traverse the precarious pedestrian bridge that crossed a narrow section of the Niaqunguk River, in 1955. The image was presented as a poster-enlargement and taped up in the Nanook School gymnasium during a Nov. 16 party held to mark the completion of the new Apex bridge. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Awesome. Now the bridge at the 8-story. Or just a bridge for wslking, there is absolutely no room for both drivers and pedestrians.
Exactly! and since the post office is there, it has seen way more traffic than usual. That bridge should be next on the agenda.
That complex is privately owned by Nunastar and not the city.
The bridge also gave access to the old rcmp station so are you sure the bridge is owned by astro hill and not the town
so your saying the community showed up to support something without NTI having to pay each person $100? wow impressive.
Thanks to Anne and family for organizing this. It was a perfect Apex community event. And thanks Anne for documenting the bridge replacement on the Apex Facebook page. You made infrastructure interesting, you helped draw our attention to learn about something that might otherwise be ignored. Brilliant.
What are they doing with the old bridge?
Couldn’t the city repurpose it for an ATV bridge across the Silvia Grinnell?
I suppose now it is time to install a traffic calming device to better separate Apex road from the neighbourhood streets. Maybe narrow the street briefly to one lane in order to clearly influence traffic to SLOW DOWN.