By Eric Bourque
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
While the committee of residents leading the effort to have a new bridge built between Sluice Point and Surette’s Island had hoped to see a new structure in place by sometime in 2012, the word now from the Nova Scotia government is that the project is not expected to go to tender until 2012 and that funding considerations ultimately will determine how soon things happen.
In a recent letter to the Municipality of Argyle, Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Bill Estabrooks gave a timeline for the project that suggests a new bridge will not be built as soon as previously indicated. “Planning and design work for this project is ongoing and the department is still on schedule to have this project tender ready for 2012,” the minister said in his letter.
Argyle MLA Chris d’Entremont says he’s upset the project has not progressed more than this and hopes a meeting can be arranged with the minister to discuss it.
The letter from Estabrooks to the Municipality of Argyle was part of the agenda package for a recent Argyle council meeting.
The minister wrote the letter, dated Dec. 2 and addressed to Argyle Warden Aldric d’Entremont, in response to an inquiry from the municipality regarding the status of the Indian Sluice Bridge replacement project.
According to the minister, while the project is still important in the government’s eyes, even reaching the point of a tender call by 2012 is not a sure thing. “I can assure you that the replacement of this structure remains high on the department’s priority list,” he said in his correspondence to the municipality. “However, the actual date for this project will be subject to availability of funding.”
A communications official with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in Halifax was asked about the minister’s letter and its reference to 2012 for a tender call. “As indicated in the minister’s letter, the expected tender date is now 2012,” the official said by email. “While it is our intention to meet that timeframe, the actual tender date will depend on the amount of money available to the department during the next few years.”
People who live near the bridge and who use it on a regular basis have been calling for a new bridge for a long time, citing safety concerns with the present one-lane structure.
The Indian Sluice Bridge – Yarmouth County’s longest bridge at around 187 metres – turned 100 years old last year.
The bridge replacement committee – a group of residents from Surette’s Island, Morris Island and Sluice Point – had hoped to have a new bridge in 2012, this being the timeline given to them in 2008.
Argyle MLA Chris d’Entremont wrote to Estabrooks last week stressing the importance of the project. “I have told you before,” he wrote, “that the (transportation) department has been ignoring this issue for a long time, even with my cries for help over the last six years. It has only been with the intervention of the last two ministers that we have gotten to this point.”
Geotechnical work in the area of the bridge was to have been done last year but wasn’t. “It was never tendered,” d’Entremont said in an interview. “By the time fall came around, it was too late apparently. That was sort of the message that I got.”
He would like to meet directly with the minister to discuss the project, a meeting that would involve a representative (or representatives) of the people who use the Indian Sluice Bridge and who want a new one.
Interviewed Feb. 3, d’Entremont said, “I’m hoping (to have this meeting) within the next three weeks. That’s what I’m really aiming for at this point.”
