The reconstruction of the Grier Creek Bridge on The Blue Mountains/Euphrasia Townline is proceeding well.
At Grey County council's regular meeting on Tuesday morning a bylaw was approved authorizing the warden and clerk to execute an agreement between the county and the two local level municipalities for the reconstruction job.
The agreement lays out the terms, conditions and the financial responsibilities of each party in the job. Meanwhile, construction at the site continues and is moving ahead well.
"Everything is going great. There are no public concerns," said Grey Highlands Deputy Mayor and Transportation and Public Safety (TAPS) committee member Dave Fawcett. "So far the only problem is the amount of water that's in there right now. Normally at this time of year it's usually dry, but we've had so much wet weather this year," he said.
Members of the county's TAPS committee visited the Grier Creek project last Thursday to take a look at the progress on the job.
The reconstruction of the bridge and the south hill approach to the bridge is a joint project between Grey County, The Blue Mountains and Grey Highlands. Grey County is paying for the vast majority of the project with its own funds and close to $1 million in joint funding from the province and federal COMRIF program.
The total cost of the project is $2,223,461.27.
The county is paying the entire cost of replacing the bridge and the funding received from the upper levels of government.
Each local municipality is contributing $158,050.44 to the reconstruction of the south hill approach to the bridge, with the county kicking in a further $50,000 for that portion of the project.
The three parties have agreed in the by law passed Tuesday morning that any cost overrun on the south hill portion of the project over 10 per cent will lead to further discussions/negotiations about further financing.
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In other county road business, county council passed a by-law authorizing the acquisition of land in order to build a roundabout at the intersection of Grey Road 19, Grey Road 119 (formally Scenic Caves Road) and Mountain Drive in The Blue Mountains.
The roundabout has been in the works for several years, but required additional land in order to move ahead.
The county Transportation and Public Safety committee (TAPS) recently approved moving ahead with acquiring land from Blue Mountain Resorts and Craigleith Development Limited for the roundabout.
As payment for the lands the county has agreed to transfer surplus road lands to Blue Mountain Resorts once the traffic roundabout has been completed. In total the county will receive 6,039 square metres of land for the roundabout. After the construction is finished 1,380 square metres of land will be transferred back to Blue Mountain Resorts at no cost to either party.
Grey County Director of Transportation Gary Shaw said the roundabout project would move forward in the near future. Currently Hydro One is relocating its infrastructure in the area and Bell and Rogers will move in shortly after the hydro work is complete.
Shaw said he has not yet decided whether or not the $1.5-million roundabout project will a fall season project or if it will be pushing into early spring 2009.
