Demolition of the old Buckland Bridge is expected to commence next month. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Bridge replacement

Cost to replace Buckland Bridge increases by $900,000

Aug 11, 2021 | 2:00 PM

Replacement of the Buckland Bridge north of Prince Albert will officially commence early next month, but the final bill is much higher than what was expected.

The lowest bidder, Warman Construction, was awarded the tender at $2.4 million. This represents a $900,000 difference than the original estimate. Project Manager Jeff HoranFH told paNOW the cost of both steel and concrete has really increased in the last four months. As well contractors are in a position where they can set higher prices.

“Quite frankly there’s a lot of work in the market with the amount of recent announcements in and around stimulus packages and infrastructure work that we are seeing contractors increase their bid prices,” he said.

The bridge, which is owned by the RM, was closed 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.

Acknowledging the public anxiety created by the bridge closure, Horan explained the Rural Municipality (RM) made a commitment to build a high quality bridge structure that would last a long time.

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“I know they are excited to see Buckland Road re-open and the timing is good because it does tie in well with what the ministry of highways intends to do with twinning on Highway 3,” Horan said.

Demolition of the existing bridge structure is expected to begin early next month, and Horan said the intention is to complete work on both the structure and road work by the end of October. He re-iterated the contractor is not to blame.

“You know anyone that’s built houses or even bought two by four’s in the last bit, should understand that world prices have gone up a lot this past year and I think they are a victim of that timing,” he said.

Since the final bid amount has come in, negotiations between the RM and the contractor have resulted in the price being lowered to $2 million. During Monday’s meeting, the RM of Buckland agreed to take the remaining $500,000 money from reserves. Reeve Don Fyrk explained the RM had set money aside for a new shop.

“The shop is put on hold now,” he said, adding they may look at financing options instead.

The federal and provincial funding for the bridge project were officially secured last month.

As part of the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream (RNIS) of the Investing in Canada program, the RM is receiving $600,000 from the federal government. Over $330,000 has been committed by the provincial government.

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