By Andrew de Souza

City hoping for help with bridges

Jun 28, 2011 | 6:24 AM

With more than $27 million dollars needed to repair the city’s eight bridges, city council is hoping the province will help shoulder the costs.

On Monday, city council talked about how the city would deal with the myriad of repairs needed on bridges and retaining walls throughout the city.

A report conducted last summer found that between 2012 and 2024, the city would need about $27 million dollars to keep all the city’s bridges in working order.

With such a high looming cost, council voted in favour of putting together a budget plan to deal with it.

Council also voted specifically to maintain pressure of the province to adopt Highway 2 as it runs through the city, including the Diefenbaker Bridge into its Urban Connector program and shoulder the maintenance costs.

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That alone would help save the city around $17 million dollars.

City councillor Martin Ring said it was something that needed to be done

“The important piece here is to get the provincial government onside,” he said.
“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that the traffic coming through this city and the wear and tear on that section of highway and bridge is theirs to take responsibility for.”

He also said that when the report was released, residents had talked to him about how it highlighted the need for a second bridge.

Ring said that might be true, but a new bridge wouldn’t fix the older ones in city.

“Even if we’re talking about a second bridge, that’s ten years away,” he said. “In the meantime, we have to continue to do the maintenance on what we have.”

In the end, council voted in favour of both creating a plan and keeping the pressure on the province.

A copy of the report is available here.

adesouza@panow.com