Closed since mid-September, the West Montrose covered bridge should be open to horse-drawn buggies by the end of the week.
The development would be good news to the residents’ association, which has been pushing the Region of Waterloo to make more progress. While the bridge remains closed to motorized vehicles, the resumption of buggy traffic addresses one of the BridgeKeepers’ biggest concerns.
It’s not just a matter of convenience, it’s a safety concern, said West Montrose resident Tony Dowling of forcing Old Order Mennonites to use Line 86 for more than two months rather than crossing the covered bridge.
“While we appreciate that the region wants to be cautious in protecting the covered bridge from overloading, bear in mind that the bridge has had horse and buggy traffic for 131 years, and I believe we are all confident that it was not horse and buggy traffic that caused the recent damage,” he said in a recent letter to Lucille Bisch, the region’s director of community services.
In an interview Monday, Bisch said engineers continue to work on a plan to avoid the kind of structural damage that closed the bridge September 20. While repairs have been completed, barriers were put in place to keep vehicles off. This week, however, those barriers were to be reworked to allow buggy traffic.
“The important thing is to figure out how to prevent overloading in the future.”
The bridge has a load limit of only three tonnes, making it unsuitable for even heavy SUVs, let alone farm vehicles, she said. Leaving it up to the public to self-limit may not be a good idea.
Bisch also sees the need for some public education around treading lightly on the bridge, including encouraging buggy users to walk their horses rather than proceeding at a trot in order to reduce the effects of vibration.
Along with the issues around the closure, the BridgeKeepers have also expressed concerns about the lack of care and maintenance the bridge has received since it was acquired by the region from the province in 1998. Major structural repairs were conducted in 1999 and 2000, with much of the funding coming from the province. Since that time, said Dowling, repairs and maintenance have been sadly lacking. The walls and sides of a covered bridge are intended to protect the structure and prolong its life, yet daylight shines through the roof on sunny days, and rain pours in on rainy days. Graffiti remains on the interior of the bridge for months unless residents remove it. Broken boards go unrepaired. Painting of the interior was undertaken this past summer after the BridgeKeepers volunteered to provide the labour for the project.
For her part, Bisch said the region has been maintaining the bridge as necessary. Concerns about the roof, for instance, are unfounded, as structure is something akin to a barn that’s supposed to be exposed to the weather. The cedar shingles are designed to expand when it’s wet, contracting in the dry weather, which is when the sunlight can be seen peaking through.
“The roof is functioning as it should. A small amount of rain is probably not a big deal,” she said, though perhaps an extra row of shingles could be added to the peak when the roof is eventually replaced.
Cedar shingles have a 40-year lifespan. The region has not done any work on the roof since taking over responsibility of the bridge 15 years ago, but estimates another seven years or so would be fine.
Bisch does agree with the BridgeKeepers, however, on the need to re-open the bridge, to keep it safe from a reoccurrence of the overloading situation and to ensure elements such as signs don’t detract from the scenic draw of the structure.
In coming up with a plan to protect the bridge, the region will be holding a public consultation session, likely in January.
