Bridge repairs will take years

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This article was published 04/04/2012 (5317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Across Westman, there are approximately 40 bridges that require major repairs or outright replacement after the flood of 2011, and that work could take years to complete, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation director of regional operations Herb Mahood said.

What’s the progress report?

“One at a time,” Mahood said Monday after a presentation to Brandon City Council.

The three main priorities are the Trans-Canada Highway westbound Grand Valley Road Bridge over the Assiniboine River, the Highway 21 bridge over the Souris River at Hartney and the Highway 251 bridge at Coulter/Waskada that was heavily damaged and torn down.

“Major bridges are our priority, but there are many, many others that are out and there could be well over 40 in my region alone that are in various stages of disrepair,” Mahood said. “Some may not be replaced for a very long time. Consultants and bridge folks are all busy, working full out to get these bridges up as soon as possible.”

That said, there have been lobbying efforts to get a crossing of any kind near Highway 251 over the Souris River, as local residents are concerned about traffic safety. Businesses impacted say economic development in an oil-producing municipality has also been adversely affected, Arthur-Virden Progressive Conservative MLA Larry Maguire said.

A debate on whether private-sector interests could or should build a temporary shoofly crossing on privately owned land has taken place.

“When they built a channel for the Souris River in the 1960s, when they built the bridge initially, they dug a channel to straighten out the river,” Maguire said. “They are looking at bringing in a temporary bridge over that channel and getting access to it over a private landowner’s land. It’s pasture land and isn’t cultivatable, but right now it’s dry land.”

The proposed bridge, currently in Alberta, is being retrofitted to meet Manitoba’s engineering standards and would cross the river in one span so fish and wildlife travel is not impacted. However, as the provincial government does not plan to put a dime into this project, the funds and work will be driven by the private sector or it won’t happen at all, Maguire said.

“(The government) said it would take $5 million to do this work, but I can’t see how you would spend $5 million on a shoofly there because there’s barely any water in the river,” Maguire said. “There’s probably four feet of water at most right now. This would definitely make it safer to travel because it would get some of the traffic off of the correction line detour road and make it safer.”

Maguire isn’t certain the provincial government understands the impacted businesses and industries are “losing way more money that it would cost them to be involved in this process.”

“And they never even thought to ask these companies if they would be involved,” Maguire said. “They just said initially that they wouldn’t allow it.”

Mahood said bridge consultants and inspectors remain busy checking the existing infrastructure and river crossings, but the more they inspect, the more problems they find.

“It will take us quite a few years to get caught up from this flood and it’s not going to happen overnight and it certainly won’t all happen this year,” Mahood said.

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com