BRUCEDALE – Guelph/Eramosa council has awarded a contract for two bridge replacements on the 7th Line to South Shore Contracting at a cost of $1,549,312 excluding HST.
The two structures, known as B002 and B2003 and located on 7th Line just south of Sideroad 20, are concrete box structures with spans of 6.2 and 3.1 metres respectively.
They are of similar age and condition and located approximately 45 meters apart. The combined tender replaces each structure with similar 6.1m span box structures.
“You can see the exposed rebar and earlier this spring there was a noticeable dip observed over one of them,” said public works director Harry Niemi at the April 7 meeting. “So they didn’t winter that well.”
A total of 10 bids were received prior to the March 25 deadline, ranging between $1,549,312 from South Shore Contracting of Essex County Inc. to $2,543,037 from GMP Contracting.
The estimated total project cost of $1,640,000 exceeds the approved capital budget by $240,000.
The funding for the bridge replacements will come from bridge reserves, the township’s infrastructure renewal fund and the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF).
According to a report shared with council, CAO Ian Roger and finance director Maneesh Kulal recommended increasing the contributions from each of the three sources currently approved for the project.
“I don’t ever want to see any roads or bridges closed in our municipality,” said councillor Corey Woods.
“All of these bridges are a shocking amount but unfortunately it is what it is, so I would support the added cost coming out of the reserve and doing the bridges this year.”
The proposed increases are as follows:
- bridge reserve fund, $450,000, up from $400,000;
- infrastructure renewal fund, $390,000, up from $250,000; and
- OCIF, $800,000, up from $750,000.
“Keeping our bridges up and running are the core of what we do,” said Mayor Chris White.
Council voted unanimously in favour of the funding increases and authorized the award of the tender for the 7th Line bridge replacements to South Shore Contracting.
