The Menesetung Bridge Association is asking Goderich Council to provide a funding contribution toward repairs to the bridge.
Mike Dawson, who is from the association, had a delegation presentation for council during the meeting on September 9th.
He says that the bridge is still in need of urgent and important repairs, but the group says that they need to secure more funding.
In February, 2024, the directors of the Menesetung Bridge Association advised the Town Council that they had applied for a Federal Development grant to assist with major repairs to the concrete piers of the Menesetung Bridge. However, in order to get approval for the grant, they would have needed to show the government that they had secured funding from community groups or municipal governments to fund a majority of the repairs.
The federal government had informed the association at the time that they had a strong application, but they weren’t able to get the grant funding without also having secured funding from the community.
In 2020, engineers from BMRoss recommended that priority pier repairs be completed within five years. The biggest risk is at the top of the piers, where the steel girders rest on the bearing seats.
Both Goderich and Huron County were unable to commit money for the project, as the budgets for both municipalities were completed and there was no funding available.
The association wasn’t able to secure a funding commitment from either Goderich town council or from Huron County Council, and therefore were unable to get the FedDev funding.
During their appeals to Goderich and Huron County councils in February, they had noted that the cost of completing priority repairs was likely in the range of $600-700,000.
Mayor Trevor Bazinet had suggested that the bridge association also ask ACW’s council for funding assistance as well, before trying again for the FedDev grant.
Council has requested a report from staff as well.