Decision day Monday for century-old Centre Wellington bridge

CENTRE WELLINGTON - Monday is decision day for the deteriorating bridge 16-WG, just north of Fergus. 

The township of Centre Wellington has conducted a study to determine what they should do to the piece of aging infrastructure. 

Bridge 16-WG is located within the former Township of West Garafraxa on the Fifth Line between Wellington Road 19 and Sideroad 15 in the rural area to the north of Belwood Lake.

In the report submitted by Adam Gilmore, manager of engineering for the County of Wellington, the bridge is a single lane, single span solid spandrel concrete-arch bridge over the
Irvine Creek. 

It was constructed circa 1910 with a deck width of 5.3m and a span of approximately 14.3m. Bridge 16-WG was closed to the public in March 2021 due to structural deterioration and public safety concerns, the report states. 

Through consultation with agencies, the public, and Indigenous Communities, the preferred solution for Bridge 16-WG is replacement of the existing structure with a new structure.

If council endorse the recommendation of replacing the existing bridge with new structure, funding can be retrieved from the 2021 capital budget under the dedicated capital levy bridge plan. 

Any required revisions to the project scope of work and budgetary cost estimates will be included in the 2022 and 2023 capital budgets.