Posted by 
Stephen Vance -
The bridge may still be out, but as Papa Smurf once said, we’re “Not far now!” Yes, there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel for residents in Bognor.
A last minute add-on to the agenda at the Monday night Planning Meeting of Meaford Municipal Council brought with it a report from Director of Operations Stephen Vokes, and a shiny new by-law to award the tender for the construction of the new bridge on Side Road 6 in Bognor.
The infamous bridge, which has been out since last October, was removed recently under a separate tender and contract, and will now finally be reconstructed.
Bognor residents have been extremely frustrated, and vocal about what they have felt has been a much slower than necessary process to have the bridge replaced.
I visited Bognor on Sunday, and talked to many of the residents there (more on that visit to follow over the next couple of days), and it was clear that they were fed up with what has been a very lengthy period of inconvenience.
The loss of the bridge has resulted in residents feeling cut off from the village, and the post office where they collect their mail. In order to get to the village residents have had to endure a 7 km detour, which may not sound like much, but over the course of a year, the kilometres add up.
The announcement at Meaford Council on Monday may not help to remove doubts that the residents have about the bridge being open before the snow begins to fall, but the contract, which has been awarded to Precision Concrete Inc., includes a scheduled completion date no later than December 18th.
Premier Concrete Inc. submitted the lowest of six bids received by the municipality at $845,358. The highest bid was in excess of $1.7 million.
According to Vokes, the entire project including design, removal of the old bridge, and construction of the new bridge is currently projected to come in well under the budget of roughly $1.3 million.
The municipality has received federal and provincial infrastructure funding amounting to two thirds of the total costs of the project.
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