Businesses in Walkerton are concerned about the impact the Durham Street bridge reconstruction could have if Bruce County isn't willing to install a temporary solution.
Several local shops have formed the 'Keep Walkerton Connected' action committee, in order to bring awareness to the impact a detour around town would have on the community when work begins in 2025.
Bruce County is still in the environmental assessment phase of the project, but staff say the preference is to replace the 86-year-old bridge at its current location. That would require a temporary detour for Bruce Road 4 while the work is completed, which will take well over a year. The County's current preference is for a detour that would use local roads, sending motorists over the Younge Street bridge, across Concession Road 2 and back along Bruce Road 19.
Though the County has also listed a temporary bridge spanning from Orange Street to McNab Street as a possible alternative, Nicole Thomas, who helped organize the Keep Walkerton Connected group, says to her knowledge that option isn't seriously being considered.
"When it comes down to it, they have not even spoken to any of the land owners, they haven't spoken to the town about it," says Thomas, who also owns Marlin Travel. "They've just kind of pushed that off as 'it's going to be too expensive, we can't put in the temporary bridge.' They are saying that because of the width of our river, there needs to be a pillar put in and the bridge in Paisley doesn't have that pillar, so they were able to do it."
The County's project team will be providing an update to Brockton Council at Tuesday's meeting. At that same meeting, Jeff Davis and Thomas will have a delegation to present a petition to council from businesses demanding a temporary bridge be put in place.
Thomas says the County's preferred detour would be detrimental to first responders and would ultimately send a large portion of the Walkerton community elsewhere.
"I've driven this detour but one thing that was extremely shocking to me was that it is less time and less kilometres for me to drive from my house to Hanover and shop there, than it would be to do the detour and get to my local grocery store," she says. "So in that case, we're sending people out of town because we all know people are going to do what's easiest and most convenient."
Bruce County Communications says there's growing interest in the project and they'll "work to address comments before making a final recommendation for alternatives to County Council after the next public meeting planned for the summer/fall of 2023."
A date for the next public meeting has yet to be finalized.
For those that want to learn more about the Keep Walkerton Connected group, they can visit here.