Rural municipalities are going to need more than road repair money to accommodate the offloading of traffic from secondary highways onto the grid road system.
“We need approximately $500 million over the next 25 years to replace the bridges that are reaching the end of their lifespan in this province,” said Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president David Marit.
More than 2,200 bridges connect municipal roads across the province, many of which were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
SARM said those decades-old structures require extensive repair or full replacement at an estimated cost of $250,000 to $450,000 per bridge.
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In some cases the installation of a culvert would suffice, but that is also an expensive prospect.
It is a cost-prohibitive infrastructure project for RMs that contain numerous bridges.
SARM has asked the province for $1.5 million in bridge repair money to be included in the upcoming budget, which it describes as a stop-gap measure to deal with pressing needs.
Marit said one RM in the northeastern Saskatchewan lost 11 bridges in last year’s spring flooding.
“That’s a huge impact to them. I think they’re looking at $250,000 a bridge.”
The province’s new transportation plan intends to force trucks off thin membrane paved highways onto grid roads.
SARN’s long-term plan calls for lobbying the provincial government to adopt a formal bridge repair or replacement program so that RMs are better equipped to handle the resulting increased truck traffic.
