Council approves amendment for bridge project

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

Additional requirements to protect heritage and history, along with increased construction costs have led the Bloomsburg Bridge and Highway 24 culvert replacement project to come in over budget.

However, despite staff seeking a budget amendment at the April 14 council-in-committee meeting to allow the work to proceed, Director of Engineering and Asset Management Darnell Lambert pointed out that to date overall tenders have resulted in the County being below budget by $417,000 for the seven engineering tenders that have closed, and $4.86 million for the nine construction tenders. Staff have two more engineering tenders and four more construction tenders to close.

Describing the Bloomsburg Bridge area as a tricky spot, Lambert said staff required a $419,000 budget amendment for the project. It represents a 23 per cent increase over what was budgeted.

“This is a very tight work site to work within,” he said. The bridge is also next to the older Roman stone arch bridge, which is a heritage designated asset.

Given previous disruption of the site, staff were expecting to only require archaeological work to progress to stage two. But it turned out stage three and four assessments were required, which increased the costs.

“That work is all complete. The outcome is the requirement to fence off the site but to still have monitoring taking place during the digging of around the foundations just in case something’s found in close proximity, but we’re not expecting that to happen,” said Lambert.

Heritage impact assessment requirements are also affecting the cost, as are some construction needs including sheet piling for dewatering and increased costs for steel rebar and guiderails. Staff identified uncommitted funds in the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund reserve that can be used to cover the increased costs.