Work on Palmerston’s pedestrian bridge will be done this year.
The low bid, by W. G. Kelly Construction, came in at $387,174, including GST. The cost, had it included painting, would be double at nearly $837,624.
Only three bids were received for renovations to the century old heritage structure.
The pedestrian bridge crosses the former CN lands and is a unique structure in the province – and certainly in rural Ontario. In its report to council, Engineers B.M. Ross and Associates Limited stated “With or without the provisional item of structure painting, the tender of W. G. Kelly is lowest. We have worked with this contractor on numerous bridge projects including repairs to steel truss bridges. It is our opinion that [the company] has the knowledge, skill and resources to successfully complete this contract.”
The completion date for the work is Aug. 29.
However, discussion of the tender at the council level led to more talks about the impact the work will have on this year’s railway handcar races set for June 14.
Treasurer Gord Duff pointed out tender work generally only includes stipulations of completion dates, not when the project would begin.
Works Superintendent Norm Fisk said that while the work crew intends to be “out of the way” during the races – “I can’t see people being able to be on it [for this year’s event].”
Further, he suspected in this type of work, the deck would be the last part of the bridge to be put back into place.
