The Municipality of Grey Highlands will not be proceeding with a $1.3 million bridge reconstruction project near Kimberley.
At a special council meeting to consider the draft 2024 budget, Grey Highlands council voted to remove a major bridge project from the 2024 budget. Work and planning to replace Bridge E12 on Sideroad 7A just outside of Kimberley was set to begin in 2024 with $675,000 in provincial infrastructure funding used on the project this year and the remaining $625,000 flowing into the 2025 budget.
On a motion from Coun. Joel Loughead, council decided to pull the project entirely from the budget and delay work on the bridge for at least a year.
“The road is used six months of the year. I think there are probably better alternatives,” said Loughead.
The motion to pull the project narrowly passed in a 4-3 vote with Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen and councillors Tom Allwood and Dan Wickens opposed.
Coun. Nadia Dubyk said since council had given its initial approval of the project in late 2023, there had been many conversations about the project and how to proceed.
“There is a potential opportunity to lower the cost of it and construct it in a different way,” said Dubyk, who asked staff to detail the implications of pausing the project.
Chris Cornfield, director of transportation and public spaces, said the municipality’s engineering firm would take a look at all options for the bridge’s replacement – including potentially more cost-efficient possibilities – during the design process for the project.
“We would evaluate any options,” he said, adding that bridge E12 is “challenging” because that bridge is one of four together on the same road. “It’s not one crossing. It’s a system.”
He said if the project to replace the bridge is delayed, it could deteriorate to a point that the municipality’s snow plows might no longer be able to cross the bridge for winter maintenance. Cornfield also said a delay runs the risk of the prices escalating through inflation. There are already load restrictions on the bridge due to its current condition.
After the vote, Mayor Paul McQueen said the project had to remain top of mind for council.
“We have to keep this on our radar. We don’t want to lose sight of this,” said McQueen. “We can’t disregard the people that live there and pay taxes.”
Although the project was removed from the 2024 budget, the change had no impact on the tax levy for the year as it was being funded from provincial infrastructure grant money and from funds from future budgets.
