Although it’s needed, Michael Gravelle hopes a new bridge over the Nipigon River will also become a landmark and tourist attraction in the coming years.
Construction is set to begin this month on a $106 million cable-stayed bridge over the Nipigon River, the province’s first. It will serve as a gateway to the beginning of the four-lane highway between Nipigon and Thunder Bay. Northern Development minister Gravelle said he’s made a crusade out of lobbying efforts to get the new highway completed.
The bridge will be a landmark piece of that construction.
“This is part of a long held dream of mine to see four-laning between Thunder Bay and Nipigon,” Gravelle said as the province announced the beginning of construction Tuesday. “It really is going to be unique.”
The bridge is being built by Oakville’s Bot Construction in partnership with Spain’s Ferrovial Agroman, which has experience in cable-stayed bridge construction. Btu the construction means more than 1,000 jobs for local and regional subcontractors Gravelle said.
While the province could have built new bridges of the same old design, Gravelle said this project can be a tourist attraction for the region.
“I think this was the right decision,” he said. “We deserve to have the same kind of quality highways as anybody else does in the province and I think there’s no question the justification is there.”
The bridge is expected to be complete sometime in the 2017 construction season.
