Everyone knows practice makes perfect in piano lessons, baseball and mathematics.
Turns out it also helps in bridge building.
Municipal officials from northeastern Saskatchewan say the cost of replacing aging bridges in rural Saskatchewan has declined dramatically over the past few years.
Wes Black, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Porcupine, said construction costs for a 50-foot span bridge under a municipal grid has dropped by 30 percent or more since 2008.
The cost reduction is due primarily to the involvement of private sector contractors and new, more efficient methods of bridge construction, he said.
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“When we first started fighting with bridges in 2006 or 2007, a bridge that costs $400,000 today was costing over $700,000 back when the provincial government was building them,” said Black.
“We insisted that it (the work) go to private contractors. We got more done and we got the prices down to under $400,000 for the exact same bridge.”
Until recently, provincial bridge building crews built all municipal bridges in Saskatchewan.
However, the number of bridges requiring immediate replacement started to rise after several years of flooding and high spring runoff, and provincial bridge building crews faced a backlog of work.
Black said the situation in northeastern Saskatchewan was becoming unmanageable.
“We have 54 bridges in our RM alone,” he said.
“I think our municipality is second or third for the highest number of bridges in the province and a lot of them needed immediate attention. We couldn’t just say, ‘OK, we’re going to sit on these bridges for a year or two and wait.’ ”
Black’s RM joined forces with neighbouring municipalities in the northeast to look for alternatives.
The municipalities, collectively known as the Northeast Quadrant, assessed their bridge building needs and sought bids from the private sector. The responses they received were encouraging.
Black said a private contractor built a 50-foot bridge in the RM of Porcupine for $370,000 in 2008.
That same year, provincial crews built a similar bridge in a nearby RM for $575,000.
“We took those numbers in (to the province) that winter and asked them how they could justify this,” said Black.
“We could build almost twice as many bridges with the same budget.”
Black said the decision to hire private contactors has saved municipal and provincial taxpayers millions of dollars over the past few years and has improved service to municipal ratepayers.
In the RM for Porcupine alone, seven new bridges have been built since 2007 and close to a dozen others have undergone major repairs.
The province still subsidizes municipal bridge building but construction and contracting decisions are made locally.
“We’ve spent probably $5 million in this RM just on bridges alone in the last three years,” said Black.
Flooding in northeastern Saskatchewan has taken a huge toll on the region’s municipal infrastructure over the past few years.
According to Black, group purchasing has resulted in significant volume discounts.
Contractors are also becoming more efficient at bridge construction, meaning more bridges can be replaced in a shorter period of time.
Last winter, a contractor hired by Black’s RM constructed a 50-foot bridge in less than two weeks.
Ideal conditions aided progress, but he said the timelines were impressive nonetheless.
“He was on site for 10 days,” Black said.
“It’s just a natural thing. When you do a job long enough, you find efficiencies.”
He also said construction standards have improved.
Under the provincial model, all municipal bridges were constructed with a wooden backwall.
Using wood for backwall construction saves about $15,000 on overall construction costs, but the wood is prone to rotting and deterioration.
New bridges in the northeast are now being built with galvanized steel backwalls, which last longer, resist corrosion and are easier to install.
Black estimates the new construction method will extend the bridge’s life expectancy by 50 years.
“Through the municipal program that we had before, there was a certain way that we were supposed to build a bridge,” Black said.
“Normally, they wanted (bridges) … built only with wood on the backwall … but we insisted on going to a steel backwall…. What goes wrong with a bridge 99 percent of the time is that backwall rots, then your dirt starts coming in and your bridge goes.
“When you’re spending $400,000 on a bridge as it is, why, for the sake of $15,000, are you going to limit the lifespan of that bridge by 50 years?”
The Northeast Quadrant was nominated this year for an award through the Saskatchewan Municipal Awards Program, which recognizes excellence and innovation in municipal governance.
The Northeast Quadrant comprises the RMs of Arborfield, Bjorkdale, Connaught, Hudson Bay, Kelvington, Nipawin, Porcupine, Preeceville, Tisdale and Torch River.
POTENTIAL HERITAGE ROAD BRIDGES IN SASKATCHEWAN
In 2007, Heritage Resources commissioned a study of pre- 1950 road and rail bridges in Saskatchewan. The author cited 25 road bridges as potential provincial heritage properties. They include:
•Moose Jaw – timber/truss, pony construction: one of three remaining steel pony trusses in Saskatchewan constructed in 1907
•Moose Jaw– the oldest remaining double-span concrete bowstring arch bridge in Saskatchewan
•Moose Jaw – a depression-era relief project using flat slab construction. It is one of the longest road bridges in the province
•Cupar – oldest remaining timber bridge in the province (one of about 10 dating from 1930)
•McCraney –one of the oldest remaining beam bridges in Saskatchewan (one of four such bridges constructed in 1920)
•Regina – oldest remaining concrete bowstring arch bridge in Saskatchewan, believed to be the first of this type constructed in the province
•Battleford –oldest through truss bridge remaining in Saskatchewan.
Source: Government of Saskatchewan
