Sparwood’s pedestrian bridge to get permanent lighting

Sparwood’s Elk River pedestrian bridge is going to get all done up in lights this summer.

The District of Sparwood has awarded a $306K contract to Martech Electrical Systems to install permanent lighting on the bridge, which is a little gloomy in winter.

The well-used bridge between Sparwood Heights and maintown is currently fitted with solar lights that don’t work as intended.

“There are solar lights that are not working, and have not worked for years,” said Mayor Wilks. “There’s not enough light (to charge the lights) in summer with the cottonwoods in bloom. And then come winter we just don’t get enough light.

“(The solar lights) are a great experiment, but it just didn’t work there, not there. We have to hard-wire it.”

The contract to Martech is for them to install and hard wire adequate lighting for the pedestrian bridge for $306,393.38 (plus taxes).

Work to install the lighting will begin as soon as possible, with Martech telling the district they can have works completed before the end of summer, hopefully giving pedestrians a little more light as they traverse the bridge this winter.

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