Mountain View County council has rejected a lower-cost steel option and decided to go with a standard concrete design for the replacement bridge on Big Prairie Road.Council last week accepted the lowest bid of $2.42 million from Trevcon Enterprises after nine tenders were received. The total estimated project cost after engineering and contingency fund is $2.72 million, with half of the amount to be paid by the province.The contract was awarded after council learned that a 40-ton steel bridge would cost $1.2 million after factoring in road construction costs – about $200,000 less than the county's share for the 110-tonne concrete bridge that meets provincial standards.Council had also heard during last Wednesday's meeting that the province might be willing to cost-share an alternative steel structure, but the design review process would jeopardize the planned fall completion date of the project, which has already been delayed by one year.“The process usually takes 12 to 18 months – it takes a lot of time,” said Donald Saunders, Alberta Transportation's bridge manager for the central region, who appeared before council to outline the province's bridge standards.Div. 6 Coun. Paddy Munro called it “a shame” that the county hadn't started looking at options years earlier.“We gotta build a bridge,” Munro said, before voting in favour of awarding the contract. “I'm just not happy with the process and I would encourage you going forward,” he told administration, “to look at these alternatives right from the first day.”CAO Tony Martens replied that when staff met with AT officials in Edmonton, “it was made clear to me that if we went with a steel bridge there would be no possibility” of provincial funding.“Now there is a change in personnel and we hear that it could be funded,” Martens said.There were other reasons as well to proceed with the concrete design.• Long-term maintenance costs for the steel structure would be higher than for the concrete bridge. While both structures would eventually have to be redecked, the steel bridge would also need to be repainted. Comparing the life-cycle maintenance costs based on the province cost-sharing only the concrete bridge, infrastructure manager Ryan Morrison said the total cost for the steel bridge would come to $7 million, while maintaining the concrete bridge would cost $4.6 million, of which the province would pay $3.2 million.The $7-million figure did not sit well with Munro, who called it “ridiculous and misleading.”• While the steel bridge would have the carrying capacity to take a loaded tandem truck or snowplow, the weight restrictions would create challenges when it came to enforcement, Div. 7 Al Kemmere noted. And AT had concerns about diverting traffic to the lower-weight structure.• Community rep Dave Street, in a letter read out at the meeting, said the community supported council awarding the contract to the lowest bid for the concrete structure, adding that one concern about the steel bridge was that no federal or provincial permits were in place. Last year's delay in tendering out the project was due to waiting for required permits.The area councillor, Div. 2's Trish McKean, was absent from the meeting, but in an email read by Martens she expressed her preference for the concrete bridge, estimating it would cost the county only $172,000 more than the steel structure.Summing up his position, Reeve Bruce Beattie said, “I'm not sure we should put a 40-ton steel bridge at that location.”But he also told Saunders at the end of the AT official's presentation, “Reflecting Mr. Munro's comments, we are looking at innovative ways” to replace old structures affordably. “With 250 bridges in the county, it's a concern obviously for this county and for others.”On the positive side, Munro noted that “one good thing that came out of this” was the provincial government's decision in December to increase its maximum eligible funding contribution, based on a 50 per cent split with the county, from $800,000 to $1.42 million.Big Prairie Road residents Ron and Catherine Raybould, who attended the meeting, said they were pleased with council's decision.
