This year’s city capital budget will be amended to include a further $425,000 in spending over and above already approved financial expenditure on bridge repairs.

Derek Baldwin

Published Jun 23, 2026

Belleville council amended its 2006 capital budget Monday to spend an additional $425,000 toward the rehabilitation of downtown’s Upper Bridge linking Front Street to Moira Street West.

The money will cover the HST portion of the $4.5 million cost to bring the ailing Moira River crossing up to modern standards.

The extra cost is planned to be financed through the Canada Community Building Fund.

Repairs for the bridge were originally approved March 9.

Council also awarded the rehabilitation tender to lowest bidder UrbanLink Civil Ltd. to complete the restoration.

Deanna O’Leary, deputy director and manager, engineering, informed council that decorative lighting along the concrete span will not be installed given vandals’ damage in years past to lighting on both the Lower Bridge and the Catherine footbridge.

“The Upper Bridge is a concrete bowstring arch bridge built around 1930. No (known) major repairs were completed until 1992,” she said.

In that year, said O’Leary, “the bridge went through a major rehabilitation that included completely replacing the concrete deck, strengthening the floor beams by encasing them in concrete, and doing partial concrete repairs on the arch elements.”

“Since then, the bridge has had one smaller rehabilitation in 2003. The 2003 work included localized concrete repairs on the arch rib, arch hangers, pedestrian barrier, and concrete sidewalk.”

“The Upper Bridge has sustained significant deterioration of key structural elements including the arches, abutments, pier, deck joints and sidewalk,” she said.

Rehabilitation will require the bridge to be temporarily closed to traffic until repairs are finished.

“The bridge is planned to be temporarily closed to traffic during construction. All work requiring a road closure must be executed and fully completed within a single calendar year (either entirely within the 2026 construction season or entirely within the 2027 construction season),” O’Leary said.

Coun. Garnet Thompson asked once again about the possibility of installing some form of permanent gates that could be used to close off traffic for downtown events and reopened without resorting to renting temporary gates which cost upwards of $5,000 each event.

O’Leary replied the gates were not included in this year’s capital budget to repair the bridge but said a staff report could be brought back to council for consideration in the 2027 budget deliberations.