The federal and provincial government have invested $42.1 million in 21 infrastructure projects across Saskatchewan, in order to build stronger communities.
Of the 21 projects, four of them are in the northeast area, as local rural municipalities will soon see bridge replacements.
This includes Hudson Bay (No. 394), Preeceville (No. 334), Porcupine (No. 395), and Torch River (No. 488), who will each receive $500,000.
“In the northeast here, I believe there are 11 RMs and it’s in the neighbourhood of 250 bridges,” Said David Yorke, administrator for the RM of Torch River. “There are significant numbers up in this corner, and it has its challenges because the requirements for the standards that we have to build to make them at a cost where it’s like $1.6 million.”
For the RM of Hudson Bay, they are working on the replacement of the existing 12.2 metre precast concrete on timber bridge with a new bridge. This will affect their Twp 454A, Rg 2042 bridge.
In the RM of Porcupine, they are working on the replacement of the existing 12.2 metre treated timber bridge with a new bridge. This will affect their Copeau (Reed) bridge.
Meanwhile, the RM of Preeceville is working on the replacement of the existing 18.2 metre treated timber bridge with a new bridge. This will affect their Ebel bridge.
And, the RM of Torch RIver is working on the replacement of the existing 30.4 metre treated timber bridge with a new bridge. This will affect their construction of their bridge, South of Garrick.
For all four projects, the funding is broken up into $166,700 from the Canadian Government and $333,300 from the Saskatchewan Government, with federal funding conditional on fulfilling all requirements related to consultation with Indigenous groups.
With so many bridges within the area, which need constant repairing, according to Yorke, it’s hard keep up with the demand.
He said there have been many others that had more immediate need to do, however, and that it’s not something you can do half way.
“When you’re looking at building a bridge, you can’t do a half a bridge, so it’s kind of an all or nothing thing, whereas with roads, we can build a half a mile road or a quarter mile road and it doesn’t matter,” Yorke added.
“We’re certainly looking all the time trying to find more cost effective options to be able to replace bridges. If we can change them over to a culvert, it’s certainly lower cost to install and quite a bit less maintenance over time, but there are a lot of other factors that play into whether we can take a bridge and potentially change it to a culvert or not.”
Needs also change depending on traffic flow and weight restrictions, as some bridges can’t hold as much as others or are considered more of a major artery.
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