County approves steel bridge

weathering steel over painted steel for the new Crowe River Bridge will save on future maintenance costs, Peterborough County councillors heard before approving a $254,250 tender for the modular structure Wednesday.

The contract was awarded to Iron Bridge Fabrication, which submitted the lower of two bids – largely because the losing bid product included painted steel that would eventually have to be sandblasted and repainted, council heard.

The County Road 504 bridge, which will be installed in 2019, will have the same rusted look as the Trans Canada Trail pedestrian bridge over the Otonabee River in Peterborough, engineering and design assistant manager Doug Saccoccia said.

Other financial aspects of the project – including demolition and constructing the abutment the pre-fabricated modular span will be placed on – are forecast for next year’s budget, public works director Chris Bradley said.

Replacement of the current load-restricted North Kawartha Township span is expected to be completed in 2019.

The county also has a solid relationship with the company, which is working on three other local projects, Saccoccia said.

Through community consultation, staff learned locals wanted the replacement bridge to look like the current one – and that’s why it includes faux trusses, Bradley said.

Ambulance donated

County councillors approved the donation of a surplus, decommissioned ambulance to PARN (Peterborough Aids Resource Network)’s harm reduction program Wednesday.

With three new ambulances included in this year’s budget, three will be taken off the road – including one already sidelined with damage from a collision with a deer, County/City Para- medics Chief Randy Mellow said.

He agreed the donation could have a mitigating factor on calls for service.

PARN executive director Kim Dolan told councillors the program, founded in 1999, now counts hundreds of thousands of needles. With the vehicle, officials hope to take the program on the road in the city and county. “We have a feeling there are people that would use this service who aren’t coming into town.”

PARN also plans to do ridealongs with partner organizations as they do their best to contain the local opioid crisis.

Microsurfacing deal

County councillors awarded a $2,955,243.79 tender for microsurfacing to Miller Paving on Wednesday.

The joint tender includes microsurfacing of county roads as well as routes in Asphodel-Norwood and Havelock-Belmonst-Methuen townships.

Duncor Enterprises also bid on the work.