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Cost of Main Street Bridge fixes runs over budget estimates

Two-year project estimated to cost city $5.3 million.
Main St bridge
Thunder Bay city council on Monday night will vote on awarding a contract for the rehabilitation of the Main Street Bridge. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – The repairs to the Main Street Bridge will be more expensive than initially anticipated.

Thunder Bay city council will vote on Monday night to award the contract for the two-year rehabilitation project, which is calculated to cost the city $5.3 million.

The contract is proposed to be awarded to LH North Ltd., which submitted the lowest bid at $5.65 million. The project also includes $230,000 in contract administration costs, along with $100,000 for Union Gas line relocation but the city gets to recoup $575,000 through its HST rebate.

The bridge rehabilitation was originally included in this year’s city budget with a cost of $4.2 million. A further pre-tender estimate put the price tag at $4.7 million.

Project engineer Mike Vogrig said the higher than anticipated estimates can be attributed to requirements for how the contractor can do the work, which includes restricting when and how long the span can be closed to vehicular traffic.

“We’re trying to make some accommodations for the port authority. They have a lot of wind turbines that have to use the Main Street Bridge to get their parts out to the highway,” Vogrig said. “There are a number of construction limitations on the contract that reduce the amount of time they’re able to close the bridge down.”

Vogrig said there might be some cases where construction activity is ongoing for up to 72 hours straight to maximize work done during a closure.

“Typically, when you’re putting constraints in a contract as to how the work has to be done then you start inflating the price,” Vogrig said.

“With this particular contract we have no choice because the port authority has to run its business and these really heavy wind turbine parts, the only bridge they can go over is that Main Street Bridge.”

The bridge was originally built in the 1960s and underwent one previous rehabilitation project.

Vogrig said a rehabilitation is meant to extend the life span of the structure.

“We’re replacing the pavement and the waterproofing to protect the bridge deck. We’re doing a number of concrete and approach repairs on the bridge. There are some dips and some deterioration there,” Vogrig said.

“On the underside along some of the piers and abutments there is some deteriorated concrete so we’re fixing that up now so it doesn’t get worse and cause any further issues. As well, there’s the steel under the structure. That’s coated and the coating typically protects the steel from rusting and when it starts rusting you can get some weakening of the structure.”

Vogrig said the first year of work will include much of the work that will affect the roadway use while the second year will primarily address the underneath structure.

City administration is proposing using the Boulevard Lake Dam project’s carry forward funds to help cover the extra costs with that being re-budgeted in 2019.



About the Author: Matt Vis

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