“When we were doing winter bridge maintenance, they noticed that some of the foundation was beginning to crumble so we had to go from basically around 15,000 to 10,000, down to 3,000 tonnes and redirect traffic to another bridge.”
Public Works Manager Ryan Reid presented one option that would essentially replace the bridge with a prefabricated steel bridge that would be placed over the opening and another that would see a complete reconstruction.
Reid noted option one would be more cost effective, however, pre-fabricated bridges generally have a shorter lifespan.
But DeGenova says it’s not only about the Queensborough Bridge – the provincial and federal governments no longer fund bridge work and municipalities can’t afford it.
“The government, federal and provincial, used to come forward to the table with a third, a third and municipalities came up with a third. Well the last couple of years there’s been no third for any of these infrastructure projects and municipalities have had to fund them 100% on their own. And we’ve used our reserves, we’ve gone into debt and I don’t want to incur more debt.”
He says the provincial government is not investing in rural Ontario.
“We’ve all been chomping at the bit to get some funds and assistance and we haven’t had anything. And the Municipality of Tweed with 52 bridges, you can imagine what we’re experiencing right now. We have more bridges than Belleville with a population of 6,100 and a tax base of $5.5 million.”
DeGenova says council gave the go-ahead to go to Public Tender for the Queensborough Bridge replacement options.
Once they have cost estimates, they will make a decision and go to higher levels of government for funding.
