Kingston, a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, has recently announced that i is considering the construction of a bridge over the Cataraqui River on a public-private partnership basis.

The river forms the lower portion of the Rideau Canal and drains into Lake Ontario at Kingston.

According to local press, the city has hired Infrastructure Ontario to help determine what kind of business model to adopt including the possibility of a public-private partnership (PPP). The final decision will be adopted in mid 2017.

The bridge, which will rise between 12 and 14 meters above the river surface, will consist of two-lane, running 1.2 kilometers from John Counter Boulevard to Gore Road, and it will include a multi-use pathway to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians.

The beginning of the construction work is scheduled for the upcoming July. This will be the third river crossing and it has a total investment estimated at CAD130 million (US$102.28 million). This third crossing is part of a transportation master plan.

The preparation works for the bridge project started in 2009, and by the end of this year CAD7 million will be invested for the environmental assessment (EA) and for the beginning of the construction works.