The replacement of a bridge and culvert on Perth Line 86 near the Perth East Village of Tralee next year will require the closure of a stretch of that road — the heaviest-travelled road the county manages — for as long as two weeks.
The planned $1-million replacement of a bridge and culvert on the road that borders Perth and Wellington counties will require a stretch of what is described as the “heaviest traveled” road managed by Perth County to be closed for as long as two weeks next year .
Located on Perth Line 86 near Perth Road 131 and the Perth East village of Tralee, the bridge and culvert was most recently inspected in 2021 and found to be in “very poor condition”, with severe concrete breakage, fractures, exposed and corroded rebar, cracking throughout the soffit, and exposed and delaminated foundations, as well as erosion of the embankment at the site, Perth County asset management and engineering specialist Bill Wilson told Perth County council Thursday morning.
“As we all know, Perth Line 86 is one of the county’s most heavily traveled roads within our network, so there has been a great deal of consideration regarding the impacts to traffic that this construction project will create,” Wilson said. “We did look at alternatives so we could stage construction and maintain some level of traffic flow, but that would increase construction length and the costs of the project. There are also some site constraints there, mainly with overhead utilities and underground utilities that kind of limited us to certain options out there.
“The preferred … structure type is a pre-cast structure. It has an anticipated construction time of three weeks. However, we will need a full road closure for approximately two of those weeks to facilitate the replacement. … During that time, we will have a detour route in place. However, that has not been finalized yet.”
In response to a question from Coun. Dean Trentowsky about whether any potential delay in delivery of the pre-cast structures could cause problems with the approved construction window set out by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Wilson said he’s hoping to put the project out to tender in January to avoid any possible delivery. issues
“There is a potential for delays and that’s why we want to get this tendered early such that the contractor can get the order in for that component of the structure. … There is a Fisheries (and Oceans Canada) timing window on this project, but we have (from) June 15 until the end of the year to have it constructed,” Wilson said.
“There’s kind of two schools of thought for when the best time to do it would be. We want to obviously try to avoid construction during the peak summer months for that road and probably look towards later in the year, probably a September construction. That also impacts the school buses as well, so the exact timing of the work is still something that needs to be worked out with the successful contractor.”
To be included in Perth County’s 2023 capital budget, the $1-million cost of the bridge and culvert replacement will be split equally between Perth and Wellington counties in accordance with their boundary agreement. While Perth County is taking the lead on this project, Wilson said Wellington County has been involved with development of the plan and will include its half of the project cost in its 2023 budget.