Grey Highlands Mayor Paul McQueen is concerned the future bridge expenses could have serious consequences for the municipality’s budget.
At its meeting on Feb. 21, council officially received the 2023 Municipal Bridge Inspection Report.
The 600+ page report details the condition and future capital spending needs for the municipality’s complement of 73 bridge structures.
It was a good news/bad news report.
The good news: just 9.6 per cent of the municipality’s bridges are in poor condition. The remainder are good (47.9 per cent) or fair (42.5 per cent).
The bad news: the report forecasts over $19 million in capital bridge spending will be required over the next decade.
McQueen called the capital needs “the train coming down the tracks.”
“This will bankrupt us,” McQueen said. “We really have to look outside the box. Something has got to change here.”
The capital needs described in the report will be incorporated into the asset management plan for Grey Highlands.
Coun. Dan Wickens said Grey Highlands faces a “deluge of bridge repairs” over the next decade. While Coun. Nadia Dubyk called the report a “doozy.”
Multiple members of council said in the future, Grey Highlands will have to consider other bridge repair/replacement options than replacing existing bridges with new bridge structures.
“We should be looking at the whole picture, not just 'we have to replace like-for-like,'” said Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen.
Chris Cornfield, director of transportation and public spaces said staff would be using the report to build short- and long-term work plans for municipal bridges. He said individual projects will always be brought to council for approval. Cornfield said municipalities around the province are in a similar predicament.
“Grey Highlands is not unique in this situation,” he said, adding that at some point it’s likely staff will recommend building a reserve account specifically for bridge upgrades/repairs.
Cornfield said all options for future bridge work would be on the table, including replacing deficient structures with new bridges or alternative structures (like culverts or single-lane bridges) or closing roads where the cost of low-traffic bridges might be prohibitive.
The full report on the state of the municipality’s bridges can be found here. At the meeting, council did not make any decisions on the report other than to receive the document for information.
