GuelphToday received the following letter asking if the trestle bridge over the Eramosa River will be demolished through lack of imagination, collaboration and will.
The Guelph Hiking Trail Club wants to repair the decommissioned heritage wooden trestle bridge that is owned by Infrastructure Ontario. A functional bridge would connect existing pedestrian and cycling trails on either side of the Eramosa River, would link the Ontario Reformatory property, the City Operations Campus, and Fusion Homes’ Guelph Innovation District.
There are several other compelling cultural and economic reasons for stakeholders (I.O., City, Fusion Homes), to support the repair and re-purpose project , including the city’s net zero objectives.
In 2021 the club commissioned Wood Research and Development, an international specialist in conserving wooden structures, to evaluate the condition of the bridge and received a quote of around $350,000 to repair and re-purpose the bridge.
In 2022 Infrastructure Ontario commissioned an engineering company for alternatives for the bridge’s future and have chosen to initiate a process to demolish the bridge at a cost of $350,000.
If this strikes you as a bizarre choice, made only because it conforms neatly to existing policies and procedures that straitjacket rational decision making and don’t work in the best interest of the taxpayer, we would agree.
However that preference for inaction, because the project does not follow some neat bureaucratic policy guideline, is shared by other key stakeholders, even when it is acting against their own best interests.
Repairing and re-purposing this bridge is financially responsible and should be the preferred solution for Guelph. The City, Fusion Homes, GHTC and I.O. must work together to creatively craft a bridge repair agreement that serves the community. Without that active and willing engagement from the primary beneficiaries, an iconic Guelph heritage landmark will be demolished because of institutional myopia and an inability to creatively work together to think outside the box.
Save our Eramosa trestle bridge.
John Fisher
Guelph
President Guelph Hiking Trail Club
