Gord Hirschfeld is still trying to figure out how the looming closure of the University Bridge Monday and construction along College Drive will affect his business.
Hirschfeld, who owns Laura’s Lodge on College, only found out last week about the extent to which the construction will impede his ability to operate the 17-room inn located about 100 metres east of the intersection at the top of the city’s oldest bridge for motor vehicles.
He said the person who called him from city hall to inform him about the disruption was unable to answer his questions and referred him to a page on the city’s website, which also failed to clarify the situation.
But Hirschfeld delivered a clear message to the city in an interview on Wednesday, less than a week before the bridge is expected to close until August.
“Communication, communication, communication,” Hirschfeld said. “The city does not know how to communicate well with [taxpayers] who need to know what’s going on.”
City officials held a news conference Thursday to clarify the closures. The bridge is expected to close Monday to all traffic except emergency vehicles until the middle of June to accommodate work for the Link transit upgrade on College.
Once the work is completed at the intersection of College and Clarence Avenue, the bridge is expected to reopen to one lane of traffic in each direction until the end of July.
That restriction is related to a $1.5-million project that will begin April 16 and last until the end of July to replace concrete on an arch of the bridge near Spadina Crescent.
Bus routes are expected to continue along College and over the bridge for about three weeks, but will be detoured after that until the bridge reopens. The pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge is expected to remain open.
City officials declined to answer when asked if they thought the communication on the disruptions had been sufficient.
“That’s why we have a news conference,” media relations manager Mark Rogstad said.
The 110-year-old University Bridge carries the highest number of vehicles to and from downtown, 35,800 a day, according to the city’s 2024 numbers, which is more than twice the traffic on the Broadway Bridge (13,849).
The Broadway Bridge was closed from May to October last year for rehabilitation work.
Even after the University Bridge reopens, traffic is expected to be squeezed into one lane each way on College, which is one of the city’s main commuter streets with three lanes in each direction.
The work to establish one of two stretches where the city plans to have bus-only lanes, from Clarence to Cumberland Avenue, is expected to take four to six months.
Then, next summer, the next phase of bus lanes and stations on College from Cumberland to Preston Avenue is supposed to be built. The project to build the bus lanes on College represents the largest construction contract related to Link at $50 million.
On the other side of the bridge in the downtown, water main rehabilitation along 25th Street is expected to start the week of May 19 and last four months.
At least one lane in each direction is expected to stay open on 25th throughout the construction, although intersections may close temporarily.
Gord Hirschfeld, owner of Laura’s Lodge on College Drive, talks about the looming closure of the University Bridge near his business on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Saskatoon. (Travis Reddaway/CBC)
Hirschfeld said he expects to lose access to the parking spots in front of his inn, which leaves his customers with the prospect of parking in a “mud pit” next to his property.
For businesses like his, this will mark the third straight summer with major work along College after water main rehabilitation and road resurfacing the previous two years.
“Summer is generally a really busy time of year for us and we count on that being that way,” he said. “And so it really does disrupt the business a lot.”
Hirschfeld said his business fared well during the last closure of the University Bridge in 2015, but he thinks the uncertainty this time, along with the construction on College, could create more challenges.
He also said he remembers that city hall officials said after the work in 2015 that the bridge would not need to be closed again for an extended period for another 25 years.
“I remember it well, yeah, yeah,” Hirschfield smiled. “And here we are, 11 years later or whatever it is and we’re right at it. And last summer and the summer before, and it just continues on.
“And it is quite frustrating as a business owner, and our taxes go up and do our services change?”
The city’s director of transportation, Jay Magus, said the city learned from the closure of the University Bridge in 2015, when he said one headline warned of “bridge-ageddon.”
“And that didn’t happen at [the Broadway Bridge],” Magus told reporters. “Broadway handled the [extra] traffic quite easily, the Broadway Bridge.”
The University Bridge has closed briefly four times in the last four years as a result of fires underneath, three of which were linked to homeless encampments.
The $250-million Link transit upgrade is set to debut in 2028. The dedicated bus lanes on College will be located in the middle of the street.
The University Bridge is seen on Thursday, April 2, 2026 in Saskatoon. (Trevor Botherol/CBC)Busy bridges
The number of vehicles that crossed Saskatoon’s bridges daily in 2024, except as noted, according to the City of Saskatoon:
Circle Drive North (opened 1983) 73,000
Gordie Howe (2013) 38,500
University (1916) 35,800
Senator Sidney L. Buckwold (1966) 34,500
Broadway (1932) 13,849
Chief Mistawasis (2018) 13,400
Traffic (2018) 8,300*
*2023 numbers