Meadow River bridge in Flying Dust First Nation. (Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By Nicole Reis

RURAL BRIDGES

RM’s to see provincial and federal support for infrastructure and rural-based sectors

Jul 9, 2020 | 2:51 PM

The Government of Saskatchewan along with with Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) and the federal government are planning to replace 100 RM bridges over the next four years.

RM of Meadow Lake #588 chief administrative officer Gina Bernier told meadowlakeNOW the community has 25 bridges and some could use repair.

“We do have a few bridges that we have been looking [into] for funding that have been put on the backburner for a lot of years but we’re hoping that this year, we’ll be able to get some funding for some of our bridges,” Bernier said.

“We are doing one bridge this year that will cost us around $70,000 to fix and upgrade and that’s the bridge we will be applying for and hopefully we can get some funding for that one.”

Projects will be cost-shared up to $500,000, with 17 per cent of this amount coming from the federal government, while 33 per cent will come from the provincial government and the remaining share coming from the RM’s.

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(Nicole Reis/ meadowlakeNOW Staff)

“Meadow River Bridge on 604 – 3164 and we’re hoping to have that fixed by September or October but we’ll see what happens and see how many bridges we’re approved for,” she said. “At the present time, that one is in play.”

In addition to helping RM’s address their infrastructure challenges, the program also supports agriculture, energy, forestry and other rural-based sectors. Over the next four years, the $31.5 million federal/provincial funding will be directed to rural bridge improvements. According to a release, the provincial government has spent more than $9.8 billion in highways infrastructure since 2008, improving more than 15,800 km of Saskatchewan highways.

“We have a bunch of bridges that we keep doing upgrades on every year so to have some funding to upgrade those bridges would help,” Bernier said. “Some of them we don’t have to renew because they are not in bad shape but some of [bridge] boards are a little weathered or the side rails need some help.”

Some rural bridge projects are currently going through the federal approval process, so work can begin this construction season. Another intake for additional RM bridge projects is currently open and will close on July 19.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nicolereis7722