Saskatoon to install razor wire under bridge following homeless encampment fire

WATCH: The fire department was forced to shut down the University Bridge after a fire Sunday night damaged a sewer pipe.

Last week’s homeless encampment fire at the University Bridge is prompting the city to install security fencing.

The fencing would be built around the arches and piers. They are the points, eight feet off the ground, believed to be where people are getting into the bridge.

On Jan. 19, an encampment fire at the University Bridge shut down the bridge and damaged sewage pipes.

Terry Schmidt, the city’s general manager of transportation and construction, said fencing materials to restrict access are being ordered.

“The fencing will be a welded expanded metal sheet with razor wire,” Schmidt said, during Wednesday’s council meeting.

Schmidt said a contractor has taken measurements, and installation will begin as soon as the fencing materials arrive.