(Submitted photo/Levina Pearse)

By Ben Tompkins

Government Funding

R.M. of Star City receives grants to aid in bridge replacement

Mar 13, 2024 | 3:20 PM

The provincial and federal governments have teamed up to fund bridge and culvert upgrades/replacements throughout Saskatchewan.

Of the 12 projects announced on Wednesday, one of them is in the northeast, as the Rural Municipality of Star City will be receiving $480,000.

This will go towards replacing the existing 18.3 meter treated timer bridge, known as Dancey Bridge, through the construction of a new one.

“It’s kind of a backroad one, it is used by farm equipment as well as local traffic, and it has a weight restriction of five tons on it right now, so we are not allowing heavy equipment to cross it. Being that it’s restricted, that is why we’re looking at getting it replaced,” said Star City RM administrator, Levina Pearse.

Unfortunately, replacement might not actually be an option this year, however, as the $480K won’t be enough to cover the costs.

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With the current prices of everything right now, the bridge is expected to cost $1.6 million, which is too high of a bill to foot for the small RM as it stands.

“We’re not sure if it’s going to be something that will happen this year or next year possibly, of course, we’re glad to receive the funding but it’s really not enough to cover even half of the actual cost of the new bridge,” Pearse added.

“We won’t receive the funding until we do the project, so we’re kind of on hold whether we’re going to do the project. We have until March of 2026 to complete the project, so it might be something that we’ll have to look at again next year and see if costs are still as high as they are this year for bridge replacements.”

With current restrictions on the bridge, farmers are having to detour a couple of miles to get around, which is a bit of an inconvenience according to Pearse.

For now, those restrictions will remain, as the RM is in a bit of a standstill until more funding arrives, they somehow find room in next year’s budget, or costs come way down.

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