After six years of preparation, the tender to replace the Horse Lake Bridge was officially awarded on Tuesday, March 27 by the District of 100 Mile House.
Council awarded the contract to Coquitlam Ridge Constructors, a road construction company based out of Surrey, for a cost of $4,576,778.05, plus applicable taxes. Mayor Maureen Pinkney was visibly happy to bring the motion forward, noting it's been a long time coming.
"I really want to thank the staff for all their hard work and an unbelievable amount of back and forth. There's been a lot of detail and hard work put into this," Pinkney said, asking staff with a laugh. "What are you going to do with all your free time when it's done?"
During the resolution, Pinkney noted TRUE Consulting evaluated all the proposals to replace the Horse Lake Bridge, also known as Sawmill Creek Bridge, before recommending Coquitlam Ridge Constructors. The District has been working to replace the aging timber bridge, first built decades ago, for six years with a new concrete bridge designed to last for decades to come.
Several factors have slowed this process down, including an archaeological survey the district waited several months to see completed. With this approval, however, work on preparing the site by cutting down trees near the bridge will begin by the end of the first week of April according to Todd Conway, the district's director of community services.
"We're running into a two-week possibility of the bird nesting season. Within two to three weeks we have to have all the trees down that need to be down or the project could be delayed," Conway said. "It's going to happen really quick, after tonight."
Before approving the proposal, council discussed the possibility that the true cost of the bridge could likely end up being close to or over $6-million, which Coun. Donna Barnett said she found "unbelievable." Pinkney noted the cost to replace the bridge does not include the additional cost to repair the road and sidewalks after the bridge is completed.
"It's a big project," Pinkney noted.
Conway also chimed in, noting there are several additional costs that have been incurred to complete this project. He said he believes the cost will likely be closer to $6-million by the time the work is done.
"How confident are we that we're going to come under that six with what you know about the archaeological costs?" Coun. Marty Norgren asked Conway.
He replied that he asked all the professionals involved in the project to give him a more accurate number for how much their respective services would cost. Conway also told Norgren he consulted with TRUE Consulting before the council meeting and ran the numbers past them.
"We felt that all these numbers are within reason on the engineering (cost). We'll have these hard numbers here shortly but we felt pretty confident it will be under six million," Conway said.
Staff also noted they plan to have the temporary bridge, which will be set up during the demolition of the old bridge and construction of the old new, removed by December. However, if this project faces delays council may need to rent that bridge for additional months. Conway added the temporary bridge will have load restrictions similar to those currently in place on Horse Lake Bridge.
Following this discussion council passed the motion unanimously.
After council, Pinkney and Conway gave the simplymastery a better understanding of the project's timeline. She noted the trees being cut down will allow the installation of a temporary two-lane steel bridge. Pinkney said much of the work will depend on the availability of the contractor. Conway said they don't know exactly when the temporary bridge will be fully installed, though he did emphasize that it will have two lanes and a pedestrian walkway.
"A lot of it will depend on what we uncover as we start to dismantle the other bridge. It is an archaeological site and there was a few artifacts found when they were doing their initial assessment," Pinkney explained. "As we're going through the project we'll be very careful not to erode the side of the creek as it is a fish habitat. It's a little bit more of an involved process, but we respect the heritage of our community but we'll be going through very carefully doing our due diligence."
If everything goes smoothly Pinkney said the district hopes to have the demolition of the old bridge and the construction of the new bridge completed by the fall. She asked the general public to be cautious and drive at or under the speed limit while the project is underway.
"We want to get the job done but not at the cost of anyone getting hurt," Pinkney said. "We're going to look for the area residents to be very aware of what's happening."
Conway added the plan is to begin using the new bridge by the end of 2025. However, he said the project will not be fully completed until 2026 as there will be some landscaping, road repair and sidewalks to finish next spring.
"Most likely 100 per cent complete will not be completed until spring of 2026. What the hope is that we will be removing the temporary bridge and running on the new bridge by the end of 2025," Conway confirmed. "We're just really excited to get this ball rolling."
