Bridge a regional issue: Councillors
Forks Road Bridge was downloaded to Welland almost 20 years ago
Forks Road Bridge is a regional issue, said Welland’s two directly-elected Niagara Region councillors.
And Leanna Villella and Pat Chiocchio are hoping their fellow regional councillors get behind Welland Mayor Frank Campion’s motion to have bridge uploaded back to the Region.
Next Tuesday, a report on the bridge will be before Niagara’s public works committee. Chiocchio sits on that committee and will be at the meeting. Villella is not on that committee.
The three Welland representatives were recently able to get a motion before the Region’s budget committee and have it immediately deferred for a staff report.
Forks Road Bridge, one of two access points to Dain City, was closed to vehicular traffic in late October due to safety concerns with the underside of the steel structure.
Repairs carried out in 2016 were expected to bolster the bridge until at least 2020, but an engineering firm found the 88year-old span is deteriorating faster than expected. A report also said the bridge could collapse on itself within the next year to 18 months.
In December, the city shut down the bridge, formerly known as Bridge 18, to pedestrian traffic as well as concerns extra weight
from snow could compromise the stability of the structure.
After the then St. Lawrence Seaway Authority decommissioned the former lift bridge in the mid-1970s, ownership was transferred to Niagara Region which then turned it over to Welland in 2000.
A new structure could cost the city between $13 million and $18 million — with tearing down the structure costing $2.5 million, designing a new bridge $1 million, and testing existing concrete piers $500,000. A new span could cost at least $9 million but that would increase if the piers are in poor condition.
Campion wants the region to take the bridge back and pay the $4 million needed to tear down the existing structure, test the existing concrete piers and design a new bridge.
His motion said the bridge is the largest and most costly structure downloaded by the Region to any of the local area municipalities during Region-wide downloading process in 2000.
“I recognize it’s a lot of money, but we’re going to have to find it somewhere. We can’t leave the people of Dain City with nothing,” said Villella, adding she’s in full support of the mayor’s motion.
“We have to find a solution somehow, some way.”
Though the bridge is not technically part of the Region’s responsibility, Villella said it really is part of Niagara’s transportation infrastructure, connecting various municipalities.
Chiocchio, a former Ward 4 Coun. in Welland, said it doesn’t even make sense to him as to why the bridge was downloaded to the city in the first place.
Just down from the city-owned portion of Forks, the road turns back into a regional road.
“It’s the main link for the businesses in the area, for the residents of Dain City and for the citizens of Port Colborne and Wainfleet and even further down,” he said, adding residents from Dunnville use the road as well.
Like Campion, Chiocchio sees the issue from an economic development point of view, with hectares of prime industrial land
‘‘ If the bridge stays closed that tells businesses the area is closed for business.” PAT CHIOCCHIO Regional Councillor
— the former John Deere property — in the area.
“If the bridge stays closed that tells businesses the area is closed for business.”
He also sees it as a safety issue for residents, with only one way in and out that has an active rail line crossing it.
“Something needs to be done as quickly as possible … hopefully, it can be uploaded to the Region.”
Chiocchio said the Region and Welland need to work with both the provincial and federal governments to find a solution.
The public works meeting gets underway at Regional headquarters, 1815 Sir Isaac Brock Way, Thorold at 9:30 a.m.