City of Brantford Council approved a $1,243,000 increase to the capital budget for the Ava Road Bridge rehabilitation project during the regular Council meeting on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.
The Ava Road Bridge, built in 1958, spans 59.73 metres in Brantford between Paris Road and Brant Avenue. It crosses two Canadian National Railway (CNR) tracks and a service road, with nearby intersections at Ava Road and Brant Avenue as well as Paris Road and Terrace Hill Street. Major rehabilitation of the bridge occurred in 1985 and 1998, involving expansion joint removal, concrete patch repairs, bearing replacement, and deck work.
While the City inspects all bridges over three metres in length every two years, several surveys and assessments were completed to get a better understanding of the bridge’s conditions including, a Municipal Class Environment Assessment (MCEA) in 2010 to reconfigure the traffic lanes and sidewalks, a detailed bridge condition survey in 2012 and a regulated OSIM inspection was completed in December of 2019
Given the scope and scale of what needed to be done for the project, it was split into two stages to better accommodate traffic flow and increase safety.
Phase one was completed in 2019 and improved the Paris Rd and Terrace Hill Street intersection, enhancing pedestrian safety. It began with intersection redesign and ended with roadway, curb, sidewalk, boulevard, storm sewer, and related work.
After an enhanced OSIM inspection was completed in June of 2021, several issues were identified and the lanes over the bridge were reduced from four to two lanes to eliminate vehicle load over the deficient structural components and to protect the traveling public.
Phase two eventually began mid-October of 2023 to replace the bridge’s superstructure, rehabilitate the bridge’s substructure like piers and abutment, and reconstruct the water main along Ava Road.
The bridge has been closed to all traffic since May 27, 2024, and while the work was expected to be completed by the end of the last year, more work, and costs, have been added to the original project, pushing the estimated end date to April 2025.
During the meeting, Jennifer Elliott, Brantford’s Director of Engineering Services, gave councillors a brief recap on the project, design revisions and the various delays that have occurred in relation to CNR permits and as well as request from CNR to have a crash wall put in.
“In order to complete all of these works, we need to approve a change order for the concrete repairs before the bridge decking can be placed back onto the new girders that are there now,” said Elliott. “In addition to those, we’ve also incurred some delay charges from the contractor, which has pushed us into the winter season for building. We initially wanted to complete this bridge in October or November, but these delays have pushed us now into April and we are seeing additional winter heating costs of the concrete and additional material costs as well.”
According the report submitted by Inderjit Hans, Brantford’s Commissioner of Public Works, the now additional $1.24 million will be “utilized towards costs associated with winter construction (e.g. heating costs and reduced productivity), project delays (e.g. extended insurance, bonding, equipment rentals and consultant services), quantity overruns and additional costs due to unforeseen site conditions (e.g. contractor downtime, extensive substructure deterioration and restoration), CN Rail crash wall construction cost increases, and internal costs (e.g. staff time).”
After some discussion in regards to the delays and pricing, as well as CNR’s setbacks, the increase to capital project was then carried unanimously.
The $1.24-million increase will be funded from the following sources: $558,000 from the OCIF Reserve Fund, and $685,000 from the Contingency Reserve Fund.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
