The Bognor Bridge is now open!
Mayor Richardson and councillor Gerald Shortt teamed up to remove the last "bridge closed" sign on the road. The Bognor Bridge was been closed to traffic since last October.
The new bridge is not completely finished at this point in time. The bridge currently has a gravel surface. Asphalting and waterproofing will be done when winter is over. Temporary concrete barriers are also on the bridge right now to keep the gravel surface on the bridge during the winter. A formal grand opening for the bridge will be held in the spring.
Meaford Operations Director Stephen Vokes said the bridge project finished on budget. The work was 2/3s funded by infrastructure money from the provincial and federal governments.
Vokes said the bridge was a headache for Meaford officials, until the municipality received the infrastructure money from the upper levels of government. Until that point municipal officials did not have a solid source of financing for the project.
"Council has been consistent from minute one about building this bridge correctly, once we had the funding," he said. "We followed an accelerated program. Every step of the design and construction was aggressive," he said.
Mayor Francis Richardson said he was pleased to have such an important project completed.
"It's a great relief to finally have this bridge open," said Mayor Richardson. "It's been a long time coming and a lot of frustration, but I'm glad it's here," he said.
Councillor Shortt was on hand to see the first traffic over the bridge. Councillor Shortt made sure he kept the Bognor Bridge topic current during the past year with regular questions about the project's progression.
"I've been interested in getting it done. It's good to have it open, that's for sure. It's certainly a well built bridge," he said.
