If bridges are approved to be in good condition for the next 5, 10, or 15 years, councillors here question the need for forced inspections every two years.
The recent works, water, and sewer committee minutes noted the municipality is due to complete a two-year inspection of its bridges as well as inspection of its culverts. The culverts were last inspected in 2004. Bids to redo the work came in between $7,600 and $29,320, plus GST.
Those inspections will continue to be done by K. Smart and Associates.
B.M. Ross engineers will continue the inspections of the connecting link bridges in Mount Forest.
Councillor Dan Yake recommended Wellington North send letters to other municipalities supporting changes to the frequency of inspection requirements.
At the time, Mayor Mike Broomhead recommended contacting the Centre Wellington Township, since, at 104, it has the most bridges to maintain.
However, council’s resolution noted “due to amalgamations, many municipalities are responsible for a multitude of small bridges on secondary roads with low traffic volumes.”
Further, the resolution stated, “Bridge inspection requirements place an unnecessary financial burden on small municipalities.”
Because many municipalities have adopted minimum maintenance standards to protect them from liability claims, and that those standards were based on traffic counts and speed limits, Wellington North asked that the Ministry of Transportation consider extending the time frame from two to five years for certain bridge types.
However any bridge currently under load limitations would continue to be inspected every two years by a professional engineer. The intent was to send the resolution across the province seeking support.
“Not only is it time consuming, it is very expensive,” he said of current rules “We feel that if an engineer looks at one of our bridges and he can personally say it is good for another five, 10 or 15 years, we are questioning why it needs to be inspected two years later at an additional cost.”
In Wellington North, Yake said the bridges are in good condition. “It seems a little bit pointless to have them inspected every two years, if they have been determined to be structurally sound for a longer period of time.”
He said Centre Wellington has more bridges and structures than Wellington North. Yake said some bridges were closed, not only because of the cost of repairs but ongoing inspection costs.
