Menesetung Bridge work extended into November

Repairs rail trail bridge spanning in Goderich will take 3 months longer than expected. CTV London’s Scott Miller has more details.

The painstaking work of restoring parts of a 120-year train bridge will continue into November, two months longer than initially expected.

“It’s a tentative date, but it’s one that we’re looking forward to. It has been a long haul to get here. It’s been exciting in many ways, but also fairly arduous,’ said Marian Lane, of the volunteer run Menesetung Bridge Association.

Since April, crews have been restoring the tops and bottoms of four gigantic piers that support the 250 tonne Menesetung Bridge in Goderich. A 2020 engineering report found potentially serious structural issues with the monstrous bridge that spans the Maitland River in Goderich.

“The weather obviously affects concrete in various ways, and the serious problem here is that the upper part of the piers were in danger of losing their strength around the bearings. So, the top two meters of each pier is being recapped with reinforced concrete. The other problem is the lower parts of the piers were damaged by ice over the years and whatever, and so the bottom six meters of each pier, the principal piers, are part of our next part of the project,” said Stan Connelly, from the Menesetung Bridge Association.

Connelly, who has been watching the work closely, said about three quarters of the work on the upper piers is done, while about two thirds of the lower piers have been completed. The total cost of the project is approximately $970,000, which about 92 per cent of has been raised from the public and government grants. Extending the work made more sense than reopening, as hoped, in September.

“The setup costs, add to the costs of them coming back another time, and we really did not want to close the bridge another season,” said Lane.

The Menesetung Bridge was a train bridge from 1907 to 1988, and was saved from the wrecking ball by a group of volunteers who turned it into a walking bridge in the early 1990s.

It’s estimated as many as 30,000 people use the 750 foot long bridge each year. It’s an integral part of the Guelph to Goderich Trail, Maitland Trail, and Trans-Canada Trail, which is why protecting the tops of bottoms of the concrete piers supporting the gigantic structure is so important, say organizers.

“Having done that, the structure will be able to stand the rains that cause the upper problem, and the high water that caused the lower problem, for hopefully many, many more years,” said Connelly.

You can learn more about the project by visiting their website.