County speeds up causeway widening
$5M project to rehabilitate, stabilize Chemong Lake causeway used by 10,000 vehicles a day
Peterborough County will draw on funding reserves to speed up the widening of the James A. Gifford Causeway between Bridgenorth and Ennismore.
Staff recommended tendering the work before the start of the 2019 budget process because council’s decision-making authority may be restricted during the upcoming lame duck period prior to the Oct. 22 municipal election.
The money will come from the public works linear assets and engineered structures reserve, to be replenished through the annual budgeting process by 2021. The estimated cost of rehabilitating and stabilizing the causeway is more than $5 million.
In a report, engineering and design manager Peter Nielsen explained how a 2013 environmental assessment was the first step in planning to rehabilitate and stabilize the submerged road base that carries 10,000 vehicles a day.
The May 4 wind storm, which created waves that overtopped and damaged the road, demonstrates the “extreme natural conditions of weather and wave action that impacts the stability” of the causeway, he wrote.
Accelerating the timing of the project to widen the 12-metredeep aims to “protect the integrity of this vital transportation corridor,” Nielsen added. The widening project was initially planned to begin in the fall of 2020.
Construction plans to widen the span have been drawn up and presented to regulatory agencies, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Parks Canada – Trent-Severn Waterway, Transport Canada, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority.
Council’s approval to accelerate the project is expected to speed up the approvals process that has been underway since 2013, Nielsen wrote.
Widening the causeway has been identified as both a shortterm and long-term need for transportation network improvements of county infrastructure in the county’s Transportation Master Plan.
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