When presented with several options by municipal staff, Chatham council has decided to stay with the status quo when it comes to the two downtown bridges.
At council recently, a report from the infrastructure and engineering department on downtown transportation made recommendations focused on improving traffic access across Chatham from St. Clair Street to Queen Street.
Options were presented by director of engineering Adam Sullo, including closing both the Third and Fifth street bridges and building a new bridge across the river, which would involve expropriating land along the proposed route.
“If we want to see anything different, now is the time,” Sullo said to council regarding the $8 million project currently underway to replace the Fifth Street Bridge. Government funding of $2 million is part of the project which must be completed by the end of 2017.
“If you are going to change anything, now is the time. If we leave the Fifth and Third Street Bridge the way they are, they will stay that way for the rest of our lives,” Sullo added, as the re-construction is expected to last 75 years.
Coun. Derek Robertson, after looking at the options for a new bridge, said he would not support the entire recommendation.
“We are trying to find a solution to a problem that doesn’t necessarily exist,” he said to council. “Expropriation of land – there is a time to do this and now is not one of them.”
The recommendation he did support regarding downtown transportation issues was to replace existing sidewalks downtown in 2017 using capital budget funds allocated for the downtown revitalization project.
Sullo explained that staff don’t see a problem, “we see an opportunity” to work on a pedestrian access and create an “environment that is very inviting to pedestrians.” With rehabilitation work needed on the north side of the Thames River, where there is currently fencing, staff looked at the whole picture of downtown revitalization and tried to give council options for the bigger picture.
The Third Street Bridge rehabilitation is expected in the next one or two years with an estimated price tag of $5 million, which brings a 20-year lifespan. If it needs to replaced, the cost jumps to approximately $15 million, according to the report.
Coun. Michael Bondy agreed with Robertson, saying to delay the Fifth Street project to do an environmental assessment will cost more money with no assurance of a viable project at the end.
The expropriation issue is one that didn’t sit well with Coun. Jeff Wesley and he also agreed with Robertson.
“Expropriation is taking property from people who don’t necessarily want to sell it to you and it can be a nasty business,” he said.
The motion to go ahead with just the sidewalk project in 2017 and keep the status quo with the bridges was passed, and Mayor Randy Hope and several councillors thanked staff for the report and giving council the opportunity to “think bigger” and outside of the box when looking at downtown revitalization.
