The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor A cash-strapped city council is being urged not to rebuild the structurally challenged Pine Avenue bridge. 'Make it a walking trail and not a road. Make it disappear,' local taxpayer advocate Blair Sapergia told council last week. Coun. Colleen McKee said council has given thought to doing just that, to which Sapergia replied, 'Good. Make it so.' 'We don't need another bridge. We don't need three bridges in two blocks,' he added, referring to the bridges on the Perimetre Highway and Wallace Avenue. Mayor George Fontaine told Sapergia his suggestion had been noted and then moved on with the meeting. Amid concerns over its structural integrity, the Pine Avenue bridge _ which stretches across Ross Creek between Creekside Drive and Kingsway Boulevard _ has been closed to heavy vehicles and equipment since mid-2008. Dollars Since then, city officials have expressed a desire to rebuild the bridge if the necessary dollars could be secured. They have discussed replacing the wooden bridge with an aluminum version. Council estimates the cost to rebuild the bridge would be approximately $500,000, about half of what was needed to rebuild the Wallace Avenue bridge in 2008. Last November, council voted to specify Pine Avenue as a street eligible for funding through the province's grant-in-aide program. That would qualify the bridge for half the cash needed for a rebuild. The city had earlier applied for provincial funding for the project but was turned down because Pine Avenue was not yet eligible through the grant-in-aide program.
