DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - While many people had been anticipating the planned November opening of the Deh Cho Bridge over the Mackenzie River until yet another announcement of delay spoiled those plans earlier this month, Kevin McLeod is looking far into the future.

McLeod, the project director for the GNWT, is looking over the next 75 years - the anticipated lifespan of the $180-million bridge at Fort Providence.

"It's late. It's not the end of the world," he said of the delay, while giving the media a tour of the project on May 18. "I have to accept that in 75 years they'll say, 'Hey, they did the right decision.'"

McLeod, who is also director of highways and marine with the GNWT's Department of Transportation, said his aim is to deliver a quality project.

Construction of the bridge began in 2008.

Transportation Minister Michael McLeod announced in the legislative assembly on May 13 that completion of the bridge was behind schedule due to a month's delay in steel delivery last fall.

Kevin McLeod told the touring media on May 18 that the steel in question are trusses from a Quebec City company

called Structal-Bridges.

McLeod said installation of the trusses was to be done by March of this year, but the late-arriving steel delayed work on the south section of the river. The trusses on the north side of the river were put in place by February.

McLeod said the contractor - Ruskin Construction - now has good weather to finish off the south side of the bridge, adding the two sections will probably be joined in late summer and deck panels will be added by October.

That's when the delay actually kicks in because the deck panels need to be covered by concrete before paving, a process requiring a temperature of at least 5 C.

"So that's taking us into the next season, and that's the major cause of the delay," McLeod said.

The required temperature could be created artificially by wrapping the top of the 1.2 km bridge in plastic and heating it, he said, noting that is not an impossible task, but an improbable one that would cost millions of extra dollars.

Except for the costs of operating the Fort Providence ferry and ice crossing for an additional year, McLeod anticipates there won't be any cost to NWT taxpayers from the delay.

He said it's still to be determined who will be responsible for covering any extra costs - either the project contractor or the steel supplier - and that may be determined in court.

Aside from answering questions about the delay, McLeod provided a detailed description and an extensive tour of the bridge for media on May 18.

That included walking inside the bridge to the end of the north-side section high above the Mackenzie River.

"It's 63 metres past Pier No. 4 and it's just resting there," McLeod said. "In fact, there's quite a dip in it. If you take a picture, you'll see that it's got quite a sag to it and it's just from its own weight."

The project director also described the painstaking process whereby trusses are moved into place - the framework that supports the bridge.

The two sides of the bridge will be connected in about three months.

Once completed, there will be three emergency telephones on the bridge, the speed limit will be 70 km/h, the guardrail will be 1.6 metres high, there will be no sidewalk although one can be added later, and a maximum of just 200 vehicles a day are expected to cross the bridge.

McLeod said it will be one of the most northerly bridges in the world.

It will also be among the longest bridges in the world, he noted. "There are only a certain number of bridges that are at this level of distance. Maybe less than 100."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.