The aging Horse Lake Bridge has been resurfaced one final time ahead of its eventual replacement.
Dawson Road Maintenance workers were hard at work on Thursday, Oct. 17 and Friday, Oct. 18 replacing the old wooden boards with new beams. The work was contracted by the District of 100 Mile House, Mayor Maureen Pinkney said, noting they had no issues securing supplies for the project.
"The bridge, as people were aware when they were crossing it, was getting to be a little too rough. With snow ploughing coming it was decided to go ahead and resurface the top," Pinkney explained. "The replacement of it definitely won't happen till next year, so it was the safest thing to do to make sure there are no interruptions through winter."
The total cost of this repair was just over $65,000, with the crew doing some repairs to the understructure of the bridge as well. Pinkney said she knows it's a lot of money to spend on a bridge slated for replacement, which is why council had put it off until now. However, the safety of the community comes first.
"It was at the absolute end of its life," Pinkney said.
This isn't the first time the bridge has been resurfaced to extend its lifespan. Additional measures have included placing weight restrictions on it. An estimated 4,000 cars a day use the bridge on average, which increases when Highway 97 is closed south of 100 Mile House for accidents.
Replacing the bridge has long been a priority for the district and is one of their ongoing projects. First built in 1977, the bridge came to the end of its expected lifespan in 2017. Council hopes to have the bridge replaced next spring and now has approval to proceed with the estimated $4.7-million replacement bridge.
Pinkney said the district has finally received the archaeological permit that has held up the replacement. With this in hand, the district will be looking to its engineers to make sure their plans align with the permit before they put the project out to tender.
"Hopefully there will be contractors available in the spring and first thing in the spring we can replace it," Pinkney remarked. "We're going to have to go through the tendering process and then it's going to depend on people's availability. Everybody is busy and we would like to start it as soon as possible but it may not occur until the fall. We don't know until we get into that process."
Regardless of when the replacement takes place, Pinkney said the district is simply happy they can finally move ahead with the project. In the meantime, she said this month's resurfacing should ensure the current bridge will last until the new concrete replacement is built.
"Everybody knows this has been a long time coming and everyone has been working on it as fast as they can. Even though we just resurfaced the top of the bridge, the whole bridge structure is at its end of life," Pinkney said. "Just because we have a nice new top on it, doesn't mean it is not still urgent. We need to get it done as fast as we can."
