By Thia James

City to award contract to repair Hwy 55 bridge

Jan 14, 2015 | 5:28 AM

Repairs will begin later this year on the Highway 55 bridge outside of Little Red River Park, now that the City of Prince Albert is set to award a contract to a construction firm to get the work done.

Administration is recommending that city council agree to award the $179,383.20 contract to Fort Richmond Construction to repair the bridge. The bridge sustained damage to its piers when high water flows swept debris in to it in the summer of 2013.

The high water flow was the result of the province’s decision to release water from the dam at Anglin Lake, as a measure to relieve pressure from heavy rains on the dam.

After the waters calmed, the province agreed to pay for the full cost of the bridge’s repairs through its Urban Highways Connector Program (UHCP).

It’s been nearly two years since the bridge sustained the damage from the debris. Why it took this long to be repaired is an issue that Mayor Greg Dionne plans to have addressed at next week’s council meeting.

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“Part of it was the process, because we didn’t want to pay for it. I know that was part of the delay,” he said and added the City had to get in the queue for funds from the UHCP.

Going into debt to repair the bridge up front and then sending the bill to the province was not an option.

“Well, I’ll tell you this, if you do that, they’ll never pay you,” Dionne said. “This way, when it’s sitting there broken and it has to be repaired, and it was them, you got to remember, it was the release of the water at Anglin Lake that damaged that bridge. So if we would have repaired it, we would have had a hard time getting our money.”

Despite the damage, the bridge was still safe for vehicles to continue to use the bridge. Dionne said that’s why it remained open. The pylons on the bridge keep drivers off of one shoulder.

The repairs will replace the bridge’s damaged piers. The repair work is expected to begin right away, with Fort Richmond Construction anticipating that it can begin before the end of this month, said manager of capital projects, Wes Hicks.

The repairs are expected to be completed before the end of March. The work will also target some of the structural issues with the bridge that existed before the debris-related damage.

Fort Richmond’s bid was just more than half of the bid submitted by Minty’s Moving Limited, which was for $336,000.

During Monday’s meeting, Hicks said that at the pre-tender site meeting with the contractors, the person representing Fort Richmond asked the most intelligent questions about bridge reconstruction. The man had worked as an inspector, Hicks said.

“And so, I’m feeling pretty confident that he knows exactly what it is that was supposed to happen, versus the other bid which I feel was probably the one that was out and is too high.”

Council will make a final decision regarding the tender at next Monday’s meeting.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames