The Capital Projects Manager with the City of Kamloops is confident that the damage to the Third Avenue Pedestrian bridge will be fixed before the Blazers home opener on October 9.

Already two months behind schedule, the bridge’s opening will be delayed slightly after it was hit by a vehicle Sunday night.

“There was an incident of some kind so we’ve got a bit more repairs to make now so we’re hoping that doesn’t delay the opening too long,” Darren Crundwell told NL News Tuesday. “Somebody definitely hit it because they took out the whole construction fence, took chunks of concrete off the steps and also broke the light, so whoever hit it, hit it hard, because that bridge ain’t moving.”

If not for that crash, Crundwell says the bridge would have reopened this weekend.

The bridge has been closed for rehabilitation work since May 25 with crews repairing and sealing concrete as well as making improvements to the handrails. They were also planning to replace the plexiglass panels at the top of the bridge.

“We definitely didn’t want to keep it closed this long. We are thankful obviously that the need for it isn’t as significant with things like the Blazers games not being at full capacity but we’re going to try and open it as soon as possible,” Crundwell added.

“[The work] is done now. It was just essentially putting the finishing touches. We had the concrete sealed. You’ll also see yellow safety strips on the stairs as well. Those and the panels at the top of the bridge are what we were waiting for [the past several weeks] and why we couldn’t open it basically, half complete.”