Smooth crossing

Group finds way to restore bridge

The co-ordinator for the West Point and Area Watershed Association marvels at what can be accomplished with a bit of funding and community support.

Elton Ellis said ATVs, snowmobilers and sports fishermen were stranded following the failure of a crossing along the Big Pierre Jacques River in Dunblane in 2015.

When the bridge deck, known by locals as “The Causeway,” gave way, it exposed the five culverts beneath it.

“You couldn’t cross it; it was just a mess,” Ellis admits.

This year, his organization received $3,800 in funding from the Wildlife Conservation Fund to carry out repairs.

The five culverts were hauled out. Donated fieldstone was hauled in on each side of the opening and a used truck bed was purchased from Morrison’s Truck Salvage to serve as a bridge deck. It’s been reinforced underneath.

The watershed association’s summer crew, with assistance from area volunteers, including a welding business completed the job.

Replacing the culverts with a wide span, Ellis said, allows water to flow freely through the stream.

The West Point and Area Watershed Association performs maintenance work on six streams, including a 10-kilometre stretch of the Big Pierre Jacques River, each summer, and each of the streams has several public and private crossings.

ERIC MACCARTHY/JOURNAL PIONEER Elton Ellis, co-ordinator of West Point and Area Watershed Association, checks the water flow beneath a new bridge deck his association recently installed with help from volunteers and the Wildlife Conservation Fund.