In my opinion, this is an opportunity for Saskatoon to build a big, strong, icon for the city. Something that will make outsiders instantly identify the city when they see a picture of Saskatoon..if that makes sense. For example, Toronto has the CN Tower, St. Louis has the St. Louis arch, Winnipeg has the Esplanade Riel bridge, even here in Regina we got the twins. Imagine a bridge like..
http://www.bugbog.com/gallery/nether...therlands.html
For those people who whine and complain about preserving the city's heritage ..so what? They have plenty of other bridges (nicer ones too!) around the city. If a new bridge with a strong iconic design was constructed, a hundred years down the road it would become even more of an icon & heritage site to the city than the current traffic bridge. Think the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC or The Golden Gate in San Fransisco, if they were dinky & rusty bridges (no offence), they wouldn't be landmark bridges in their respective cities. I say, a new modern design will be Saskatoon's icon of the century, let the broadway bridge be the icon of the 1900's.
But seeing that the city is going through with an orange replica of the current truss design..yay. Who knows, it might turn out better than expected .
..but i doubt it.