Costly and painful saga of Belleville’s historic Lower Bridge continues

Is Belleville’s Lower Bridge (Bridge Street Bridge) cursed?

One could be forgiven for thinking that, as yet another expensive repair project is about to be launched on the landmark Moira River crossing built in 1930.

Vector Restoration of Hamilton’s low bid (two bidders) of a little over $1 million including HST is being recommended for acceptance at city council’s Monday meeting.

There have been many upgrades done over the years and the last big job was in 2014, a project with a budget of around $2.5 million.

However, concrete on the arches began falling off and arch and tie beam repairs were awarded to National Structures in 2020.  The city set a budget of $1.35 million for the fix.

Work started in May of last year and in November, National Structures announced it was bankrupt and left the project unfinished.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the city requires a company to provide a Performance Bond covering 100% of the contract price in case of default.

A surety issued the bond and is covering costs and when all of the calculations are done the new repair job will not cost the city anything.

Two lanes of traffic will always remain open during this next round of repairs, as will at least one sidewalk.  Detours will be in place for heavy traffic.

Council meets Monday at 4 p.m. and will vote on staff’s recommendation.

See the detailed staff report on the Bridge Street Bridge project here.