BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead council has awarded a contract worth nearly $200,000 to upgrade an aging bridge in the Camp Creek area.
Councillors approved the recommendation from public works to award the $172,725 contract, including site occupancy and GST, to Griffin Contracting Ltd. at their meeting May 20.
Infrastructure director Ken Hove said the Jean Côté-based company was the lowest of three bids the municipality received, the highest being Formula Alberta Ltd at $255,202 from Stony Plain. Bridgemen Services Ltd from Disbury submitted the other bid of $216,930.
Hove noted the bridge, constructed in 1958, is on Range Road 45 about 45 kilometres northwest of Barrhead.
"It consists of two 6.1 metre pre-cast girder spans on an untreated timber substructure," he said. "The substructure has a poor rating that will only worsen with time."
Initially, Hove said much of the project's budget would have come from a Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) grant.
However, their application was denied.
The province created STIP to help municipalities solve their infrastructure deficit, boost the economy, and create jobs as part of its pandemic economic response. The program allows municipalities to receive roughly 75 per cent of the funding for approved infrastructure projects.
Hove said Alberta Infrastructure denied the municipality's application because the bridge's overall general condition rating is too high, at more than 33 per cent.
He said the province ranks the bridge higher than the municipality because they only look at a structure's overall condition, not individual elements, such as the substructure.
"In our opinion, that doesn't address risk very well, because if the substructure or superstructure of the bridge fails, then you have a bridge failure," county manager Debbie Oyarzun said.
The entire project, including the engineering costs of approximately $29,550 and a 10 per cent contingency fund of $16,450, is $210,500, which Hove said, if things go to plan, would be slightly under what was budgeted in the 10-Year capital plan.
Hove said the municipality's engineering firm, MPA Engineering, has worked with Griffith Contracting on multiple occasions and "always satisfactorily completed the projects."
Reeve Doug Drozd asked about potential detour routes.
"We'll have to detour residents to the east or west, with west being the shorter of the two," he said, adding Griffin Contracting is responsible for putting up all signage, including those for detour routes.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
