Area municipality will need to 'win the lottery' to pay for bridges

Now and in the future, the Municipality of Grey Highlands is facing heavy expenses to upgrade and replace bridges across the road network.

At its meeting on Nov. 6, Grey Highlands council received its bridge inspection report from engineering firm RJ Burnside and Associates. The report included information on the biennial inspections of 35 of the 70 bridge structures in Grey Highlands, which is located southwest of Collingwood. 

The conclusions? Big money is needed in the short term and the long term for bridge repair and replacement.

The report forecast that in the next 10 years Grey Highlands will have to spend an estimated $20.4 million on bridge repairs and replacements. It also identified four bridge structures/systems with immediate replacement needs in the next year with an estimated cost of more than $3.5 million.

“We’re going to have some hard decisions shortly,” said Coun. Dan Wickens. “We’re going to have to close some bridges or win the lottery.”

The 119-page report contained a lot of information about the municipality’s bridge system and Mayor Paul McQueen suggested that the report should be sent to a committee of the whole meeting for a more in-depth conversation around the council table.

“There is a lot of data there,” he said. “This is one of those items we should spend more than five minutes on. If this is a tsunami coming at us, we better have a good understanding of it.”

Other members agreed that a three-hour committee of the whole meeting would offer an opportunity to flesh out the report more.

“This is going to be a series of major expenses going forward,” said Coun. Joel Loughead. “It would be three hours well spent.”

Other councillors wondered if it was time for the municipality to consider new policies for how bridges are replaced or other options for financing such costs.

Coun. Nadia Dubyk noted that a bridge system of four structures on sideroad 7A was in critical need of replacement. At this time, those bridges are low-traffic structures. However, they are near the Talisman property, where large developments have been proposed.

She wondered if the developers should help with bridge costs where they may receive the benefit.

“Do we have alternatives to traditional ways of building bridges?” said Dubyk.

Chris Cornfield, director of transportation and public spaces, explained that during the engineering process for a bridge replacement/repair, the municipality does look at alternative possibilities for the structure such as box culverts or other options.

After the discussion, council voted to receive the report and send it to a future committee of the whole meeting for more discussion.