FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION - After six years, traffic was once again flowing across the James Street Swing Bridge, a day in which people in both Fort William First Nation and the city of Thunder Bay have been patiently waiting to see again.
“You wouldn’t know from the excitement from the people in our community about this access being open again,” said Fort William First Nation Chief, Peter Collins. “After a couple of days of chaos because of the incident on Highway 61 and getting off that highway is imperative to our folks.”
The bridge officially opened to traffic late Friday night and Saturday morning there was a steady flow of vehicles travelling in both directions.
A fire in October 2013 resulted in the closure of the bridge, though the centre railway portion reopened to trains shortly after. The cause of the fire was never determined.
A lengthy legal battle between the city of Thunder Bay and the Canadian National Railway followed, coming to a conclusion last may when the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the CN’s appeal, upholding a previous order requiring the railway to open the bridge to vehicular traffic.
The original 1906 agreement was also upheld, requiring CN maintain the bridge in perpetuity.
Collins said the length of time it took to get to this point and the legal battle was trying for him and his community, but he continued to fight to regain this access point.
“At one point in time there was a little doubt but as I worked with the city and CN I knew there was going to be an end result to it,” he said. “I commend the city and former mayor and council to the hard work and dedication to make sure this never got lost. We continued to work together on it to make sure there was some closure to it.”
“The important side of this is the work and commitment by both city council and our communities that continue to work together in harmony so our communities can grow and prosper.”
Thunder Bay Coun. Kristen Oliver, representing the Westfort Ward, said having vehicles travelling over the bridge again is an amazing day for both communities.
“The ability to have this connectivity between our two communities is vitally important,” she said. “It’s not only building an opportunity for commerce and the businesses that rely on it on both sides of the bridge, but it’s the partnership that occurred as a result of the work we did together.”
Oliver added that business owners on both sides are excited to once again see more traffic from both communities using the bridge for easier access to services in Westfort and Fort William First Nation.
“I would say people in the city of Thunder Bay are incredibly excited about it,” she said. “It was amazing to see last night all the videos people were posting of people crossing the bridge. I think it speaks testaments to the patience and tenacity everybody had waiting for this bridge to open again and it was an exciting day to have the ability to drive across again.”
While the bridge was closed, access to Fort William First Nation was restricted to Highway 61. This was particularly worrying when it came to access for emergency vehicles, which saw a much longer response times. And with recent damage to the CN overpass on the highway and new traffic delays, seeing the bridge opened now was a relief for Collins.
“That means a lot to somebody’s life,” he said. “A couple minutes could save somebody’s life. To get stuck on the chaos on 61 right now, that could cost somebody’s life. We had a situation a couple years ago where it took an hour for an ambulance to get into the community.”
Fire trucks with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue are still not able to utilize the bridge because of weight restrictions and the heavier weight of trucks in the fleet, but Collins said he is in discussions with CN to find a solution.
“We’re looking at the option of the middle lane to carry the capacity of those fire trucks,” he said. “The weight capacity is still there. It’s built at the same capacity. There is some work to be done with CN to get the emergency response vehicles on there. I started that discussion yesterday.”
Fort William First Nation is also looking at establishing it’s own volunteer fire department to reduce response times to emergencies in the community.
