The mayor of Bluewater says there are still a lot of questions around the repairs to the bridge on Hwy. 21 at the north end of Bayfield.
Tyler Hessel says the municipality had a meeting with provincial representatives at the recent AMO meeting and their first request was for an improvement in the lines of communication between the ministry and Bluewater.
Hessel says one example was the availability of the dock at the south shore marina, which was disclosed just before the May 24 weekend this year and is critical for boaters who want to launch their boats. Hessel says he's asked that the municipality be notified a little sooner if it's going to be available for next summer. Hessel says the original starting date for construction was sometime in 2018, but that still hasn't been confirmed. He also notes there have been a lot of engineers doing testing around the bridge in the last few weeks and the ministry has hired a new firm to do some of that testing, so he's asked if they're still working on the same timeline but hasn't received any confirmation yet.
The original plan called for the construction of a temporary bridge beside the existing bridge and then the closure of the original bridge while it is repaired. The project was expected to take about three years. The only path around the construction would be to travel east to Varna.
“We are asking if they are on their current timeline. We, as a community, have been noticing a lot of road counting and different tests and engineers coming down to look at different parts of the bridge so we're just wondering what their next steps are just so we can inform the public of where it's going and the timelines we're facing," says Hessel. "All they will tell us is that they're in the final design stage and that's what we've been informed of and that's where we're at. They have hired a brand new engineering firm to do the final design state. They haven't been able to give us much more update other than that.”
