A photo taken of the Buckland Bridge in spring 2020. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Public safety

Residents say closure of Buckland Bridge raises safety issues

May 18, 2021 | 10:00 AM

The Buckland Bridge has been closed for roughly seven months, and construction on the replacement remains in limbo until federal funding is secured. In the meantime, patience is waring thin.

Sarah-Mary Shenouda, a local resident in the area has written a letter to Member of Parliament (MP) Randy Hoback, in an effort to bring some public awareness to the issue, as well as hopefully speed up the process.

Speaking with paNOW, she explained what’s happening with the closure of the bridge, the only option for people commuting to and from work is to use McLeod Road. And with no passing lane off highway 3, what can happen on any given day is someone turning left onto the road has to watch out for oncoming traffic, as well as semis wanting to pass.

“The people in the neighborhood, we’ve had this conversation, and we are all freaked out,” she said.

Adding to Shenouda’s concerns is McLeod Road was never built for the increased level of traffic.

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“It’s like a washboard. Sometimes we have to go just 20km/hr just to maintain our vehicle’s control,” she said.

Shenouda noted she does appreciate the fact the RM’s equipment appear to be out every second day grating, but questions how much the RM is spending to do the job as well as haul in the extra level of required gravel.

“I cannot image how much that costed the RM to do when they could have just put that money towards fixing Buckland Road or towards the bridge,” she said.

The closure of the Buckland Bridge appears to be causing local residents a lot of anxiety. (Submitted photo)

When paNOW reached out to Randy Hoback for comment, he confirmed a letter has already been sent to the federal ministry in charge of the grant.

“A lot of times it just takes a letter like that to take [the proposal] from the pile of 100 letters, and hopefully bring it to the top and get dealt with,” he said.

The decision to close the bridge was made by the RM of Buckland council last October. While the initial plans were to keep it open until construction, mother nature had a different plan. As a result of ice damming the previous spring, the water backed up over the rails, causing sizable ice chunks to collide into the bridge, compromising the structure further. Council essentially felt it was best for safety purposes just to shut it down.

In January, council rejected a request from the Ministry of Highways to re-open the bridge. According to a statement from the ministry, inquires about opening the bridge to light traffic were made to help reduce the number of left turns off Highway 3.

Ministry officials also offered to work with the RM on a traffic management plan that would permit light traffic with a weight restriction.

“Even if we could do that, how do you clean the bridge? You can’t get a grader on it, we’re not putting a grader on it, and so we are just gonna leave it closed. It’s not safe,” said Reeve Don Fryk.

The total cost of the project is around $1.5 million. Just about $485,000 was covered by the province, under its Municipal Economic Enhancement Program.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell