Causeway project set to start

The $9.6-million reconstruction of the James A. Gifford Causeway is expected to begin on schedule later this month or early in November, now that Peterborough County has the final permit needed to start.

The county has received a permit now from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. DFO is mandated to ensure the project doesn’t impinge on treatyholders’ right to fish.

Drain Bros Construction will soon begin the widening of the rock base.

The Ontario government has promised $3.1 million for the project and the federal government is expected to offer a further $4.8 million.

Yet the county is still awaiting word from Ottawa, county chief administrative officer Troy Speck said in an interview in mid-September.

But that’s not going to delay construction: the project is expected to take two years and Speck said the federal funding will be necessary only for the 2021 phase of the work.

There’s already enough money to get started, said County Warden J. Murray Jones in an interview Sept. 17, and he’s certain the federal funding is forthcoming.

“There’s no question we’re going to get it,” Jones said. “And there’s no urgency for it, this year.”

The causeway spans Chemong Lake and links Bridgenorth and Ennismore in Selwyn Township.

After 68 years of use, the submerged road base is showing signs of failure — and the county wants to widen and stabilize it. More than 10,000 vehicles cross the causeway each day, making it the county’s busiest section of road.

An application was made for funding under the $30-billion Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program for Ontario’s rural areas. The program allows the cost of major infrastructure projects to be shared between Ottawa, the province and municipalities.

In July, the province promised $3.1 million; it then nominated the reconstruction for a further $4.8 million from the feds. That would leave the county to pay somewhere around $1.74 million, states a county staff report, and Selwyn Township to cover the remaining $170,000.