LITTLE CURRENT—While not being surprised that necessary work is going to be carried out by the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) on the Swing Bridge to correct an issue in the equipment, Al MacNevin, mayor of the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) said his and all other municipalities need to be contacted when this type of work is being proposed.
“I think they should stop fixing the current bridge and build a new one,” Mayor MacNevin put it bluntly. He said the town has not received any updates on bids the MTO is taking for rehabilitation of the pier guide assembly system on the bridge.
“That’s not unusual, they (MTO) don’t usually contact us until they have started or are very close to doing work on the bridge (that disrupts the flow of traffic),” said Mayor MacNevin.
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In this case, a reporter at The Expositor had received information on a MTO bidders list for a capital contract involving work on the Swing Bridge, which had been listed by the Ontario Road Builders Association (ORBA) for the addition of pier assembly system.
The bidders list from ORBA on September 2 outlined a total of five companies that have bid on the contract including: Clearwater Structures Inc. and 2600064 Ontario Inc, for $308,750, Belanger Construction (1981) for $396,107.48, Facca Incorporated $424,040, Louis W. Bray Construction Limited in the amount of $522,400 and Fidelity Engineering and Construction Inc. at $624,000.
Abhinav Gupta, senior manager, operations with ORBA told The Expositor late last week, “This project is a rehab. A pier guide assembly system is a component-based system designed to either stabilize existing structures by installing push piers or to create foundations for new buildings by connecting pre-manufactured pier and beam components. This contract is being advertised and is open for bidders and it is expected to start sometime in 2026.”
“Currently, yes. Clearwater Structures has the lowest bid, so they are in the lead to win this contract,” said Mr. Gupta. “At this moment, we don’t have an exact time and date, but (the awarding of the contract) should be closing before the end of the year.” He explained the MTO ranks the bids from lowest cost to highest.
