Bruce County council is speeding up the process of awarding tenders for the replacement of the flood-damaged Chesley Main Street Bridge.
The transportation and environmental services committee agreed to waive portions of the county's purchasing policy on an emergency basis as it relates to the posting and awarding of tenders.
The county wants to have the bridge replaced by the end of the year.
Engineer Brian Knox says this is one way the county is recognizing the urgent need to replace the bridge.
"The focus on the Chesley bridge is actual recovery and it's the county willpower to focus on actual events, to see the new bridge up-and-going," says Knox. "And these are some of the mechanics we've seen today is just to make sure that we condense tendering times and what-not to reflect the immediacy of the situation."
Knox says county staff are working quickly to gather accurate estimates on materials needed and are expecting to have the first tenders for the project out soon.
"They're pricing things very accurately down to tonnes of gravel and cubic metres of concrete, so one's got to be fairly accurate, so that does take a little bit of time," says Knox. "We're optimistic that we're going to see tenders for removal [of the existing bridge] and tenders for the new girders coming out in the next four weeks."
Under normal circumstances, Knox says tenders could be open for as many as 40 days, but with purchasing policy waived, they can post tenders for as little as ten calendar days.
Knox adds the current timeline for the project is for construction of the new bridge to begin in mid-June and to be completed in early December.