Broadway businesses bracing for lengthy bridge closure

In just a couple of months, the Broadway Bridge in Saskatoon is set to undergo some major repairs.

Starting in the spring, the City of Saskatoon plans to close the bridge to traffic until at least November. The upgrades to the bridge include replacing asphalt, fixing joints, traffic barriers and major arches, and replacing the sidewalks.

The project will cost a total of $13.1 million.

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There is not yet an exact date set by the city for when the bridge will close and the repair work will begin, but businesses in the Broadway area are already preparing.

Broadway Shoe Repair owner Jeff Wickstrom said he’s worried about what the bridge closure could do to his business.

“I am concerned about it, but we have dealt with this before,” Wickstrom said.

“I understand that the bridge needs to be fixed and our business will be affected, and I will do everything I can to keep people coming here.”

Wickstrom said the last time areas near Broadway Avenue went under a major repair was back in 2016. At that time, the city had to rip out the road and sidewalk to replace piping that was over 100 years old.

The Broadway Bridge is set to close for several months for major repair work. (Shane Clausing/650 CKOM)

Although the construction was painful for business, Wickstrom said his shop was able to bounce back and have a decent year despite the disruption. He said the store had to do a little bit of extra marketing and put in more effort to bring in customers, but he said he learned a lot from that experience and those lessons could be valuable this summer.

“There was a real bummer, because the sidewalk was actually shut so we were running the store out of the back alley. I don’t think that’s going to happen this time,” Wickstrom explained.

“You can still get at us from Victoria Avenue (and the) University Bridge. Might just be a little bit more effort, but we’ll do what we can to inform people on which directions they can and can’t get to Broadway.”

Not far down the road from Wickstorm is Bill Mathews. Mathews, the owner of Gangsters Italian Sandwiches, said he’s looking at the positive side of the upcoming construction.

“I guess it all depends on what your business is like. For me, I know my clientele – they’ll get here no matter what,” Mathews explained.

“More construction people will come in for lunch because it’s going to be a lot of work going on. I can understand there’s going to be a lot of congestion on the Victoria Bridge, but in the end it’s going to be a good thing.”

Casey Lawseth, who owns the newly opened 5 Coffee Brewing across the street from Gangsters Italian Sandwich, is also looking to it as a good opportunity to promote his business to all of the construction workers who will be in the area.

“We are a new business, so it’s all growth for us,” Lawseth said.

“We have a pretty built-in community around the neighborhood with all of the condos and other apartments. My business partners own the yoga studio across the parking lot from us, so they also have their full regular clientele that are already customers here as well.”

The Broadway Business Improvement District said it has already spoken with businesses in the area about ways it can attract more people to Broadway Avenue while construction on the bridge is underway.

“Our board has struck a subcommittee and there are members from our district and business owners on this committee,” explained executive director Anne-Marie Cey.

“We’ve already had two meetings, and we’ve been brainstorming and talking about different strategies and ideas on how we can alleviate some of the traffic concerns – some of the pressures with the detours – and just let people know that Broadway is here and we’re open for business.”

Cey added that the business improvement district has also spoken with the city about attracting more people to the area.

“They’re already in the process of working on a strategy around the closure,” Cey said. “They’re already talking about preparing an information package for all the businesses in the area, so that will include their graphics, messaging and any postering and things like that.”

Cey said she thinks businesses are ahead of the curve when it comes to dealing with the upcoming bridge closure.