EdwardEdm
Active Member
Is it a mysterious slab? I had a friend mention about barges being tied up along the river and it shouldn't have been a surprise anyone that there would be concrete in the river in this area.It's the largest project in the history of the city. There are bound to be cascading setbacks
How does one account for mystery slabs in the river
This 1924 image shows objects in the river, including something that looks like it could have been in the right place to interfere with the cofferdamn for the north pier.
This 1930 image shows the objects in the river much clearer. Although there appears to be something visible in the same location as the area circled in red, it isn't as well defined as other objects.
By 1943 all objects in the river in this area were no longer visible.
Clearly, if anyone had properly done some research they would have known there were objects sunk into the riverbed in the 1920's in the vicinity of this bridge.
My source for these images? Edmonton Archives website. https://cityarchives.edmonton.ca/aerial-photographs-1
I would imagine there are even more years of aerial photos available in person that could provide even more information on what these objects were and what they were used for.
It's not like this was hard to research.
Related to this, I had recently gone through the EIA for the Latta Bridge and Smith Crossing replacement projects and I was appalled at how little effort when into tracking down easily accessible historical aerial photos.
Both reports came to the November 16, 2021 Executive Committee meeting: https://pub-edmonton.escribemeeting...-b3a0-c61f3628f49e&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
Latta Ravine:
"2.2 Historic Conditions
Historical aerial photograph review was limited to available City of Edmonton pictometry imagery for 2007, 2013-2018 and 2020, as well as Google Earth (2020) imagery that spanned the period of 2002 to 2020. Very little change in development was observed on the available aerial photographs in the Latta Bridge area and vicinity during this period as this area of the city and the river valley is located in Central Edmonton and has been developed for decades."
Smith Crossing:
"2.2 Historic Conditions
Historical aerial photograph review was limited to the photograph series available on Google Earth (2020) for 1985, 2002 to 2020 and City of Edmonton SLIM Maps pictometry (2007, 2013-2018 and 2020)."
It really surprised me that the oldest imagery that these consultants reviewed was what was on Google Earth.
And I would hope that TransEd didn't just rely on Google Earth for their investigation of the historical conditions around the bridge.