CENTRE WELLINGTON – Although recently hit with a setback, Mayor Kelly Linton is confident Centre Wellington’s bridge rebuilding and rehabilitation plan remains on track to get bridges reopened.
When compared to its population of about 30,000, the township might have more bridges and culverts than any other municipality, with 111.
With a lot of these crossings built generations ago, many have aged to the point where they can’t be used.
Currently, there are 13 bridges closed, mostly in the former townships of West Garafraxa around Belwood Lake and Pilkington near Woolwich Township.
“If we determine that the structural condition of the bridge has deteriorated to a certain point and it’s no longer safe for vehicle traffic and or pedestrian traffic we’ll close it at that time,” said Adam Gilmore, Centre Wellington’s manager of engineering.
He explained bridges are subject to a legislated inspection program meaning they have to inspect bridges of a certain age, condition at a determined frequency. Centre Wellington’s bridges webpage indicates some are inspected every second year but those identified as having structural issues are inspected every six months.
“Typically, before the bridges are closed, we will load restrict them,” Gilmore said, which means the structures will have a posted weight limit for vehicles crossing over them.
The township has a further seven structures with weight limits, which Gilmore said can sometimes mean they are approaching the end of their usable life. He added weight limits are also a strategy to keep a bridge open longer and can significantly extend its usable time.
Linton said he understands some people are frustrated over bridges being closed, some of which he acknowledged have been closed for a significant period of time.
That said, he pointed out the problem used to be worse a few council terms ago. He noted around 2014, they had a 10-year capital plan but he called it more of a “wishlist.”
“We had bridges out 10 years that we absolutely knew, even though they were in our 10-year capital plan, we weren’t going to be able to fund them because we didn’t have a stream of revenue to fund them,” Linton said, referring to that time period.
“We constantly had to frustrate our citizens by saying ‘this year we’re going to be fixing the bridge close to you’ and then we go to that year ‘sorry we don’t have any money for that.’”
He said council at the time often blamed the province for not giving enough funding to fix their bridges. This led to the creation of the dedicated capital levy, which is a two per cent compounding tax used strictly for work on bridges.
Now, Linton said the township has a consistent revenue stream and is on track to consistently get bridges built. Linton noted bridges aren’t rebuilt purely on how long they’ve been closed but there are other factors in play such as traffic volumes or emergency response times to local addresses.
Based on the bridges and major culverts 10-year plan from Centre Wellington’s 2022 budget, the township has 14 of these structures set to be replaced between 2022 and 2031 and many others to get rehabilitation work as Linton noted they aren’t just waiting for bridges to crumble before doing any work.
Seven of these are those on the closed bridge list, including the First Line bridge over Irvine Creek officially called Structure 24-WG. It was budgeted for a $4.2 million replacement this year, the biggest project of the year and only full replacement in 2022, but received only one bid that was over-budget.
Council approved a staff recommendation to put the tender on pause.
Linton stressed they will be going back out to tender and it will be rebuilt. He said inflation and supply chain issues are pushing the cost of capital projects higher across the board but this particular tender was odd because there was only one bid received.
“That gives you an indication that something’s not quite right,” Linton said. “Hopefully that’s not the kind of thing we’re going to see with all our bridges.”
Gilmore explained staff review the 10-year capital plan annually as staff get more information about updated construction costs and working them within the yearly spending target on these particular projects.
Linton said he’s confident the township’s bridge rebuilding plan remains solid.
“This is a bump in the road but we have in place a real solid asset management plan to look after our bridges,” Linton said.
The bridges currently closed in Centre Wellington are:
- Sideroad 5 (former Pilkington Township) between Eighth Line West and Third Line West (Structure 1-P)
- Fourth Line (former West Garafraxa Township) between Sideroad 30 and County Road 22 (Structure 5-E)
- Sideroad 11 (former Pilkington Township) between Eighth Line West and Third Line (Structure 28-P)
- Weisenberg Road (former Pilkington Township) between Sideroad 10 and Sideroad 12 (Structure 5-P)
- Washington Street, Salem between Geddes Street and William Street (Structure 12-N)
- Sideroad 15 (former West Garafraxa Township) between Fifth Line and Sixth Line (Structure 30-WG)
- Noah Road (former Pilkington Township) between Seiling Road and Eighth Line West (Structure 32-P)
- Noah Road (former Pilkington Township) between Seiling Road and Eighth Line West (Structure 33-P)
- Sideroad 5 (former Pilkington Township) between Eighth Line West and Wellington Road 7 (Structure 30-P)
- First Line (former West Garafraxa Township) between Sideroad 10 and Sideroad 15 (Structure 24-WG)
- Fifth Line (former West Garafraxa Township) between Wellington Road 18 and Sideroad 15 (Structure 16-WG)
- Third Line (former Eramosa Township) between Wellington Road 22 and Sideroad 30 (Structure 7-E)
- Sixth Line (former Eramosa Township) between Wellington Road 22 and Sideroad 30 (Structure 3-E)