Some time lines have been announced for the replacement of the bridge over the Bayfield River at the north end of the village.
Bayfield Ward councillor Bill Whetstone hosted a recent public meeting and consultants as well as MTO were on hand to outline the three-year process.
Whetstone explains they'll have to construct a temporary, two-lane bridge beside the existing bridge, then tear down the existing bridge, build a new one and finally tear down the temporary bridge.
Whetstone says Bayfield residents attending the meeting were very pleased with the drawings of the new bridge, commenting that it fits in nicely with the heritage flavour of the village.
Whetstone says one concern was that there was no barrier between the sidewalk and the road with the result that in the winter the snow plows would fill in the sidewalk and pedestrians would have to walk on the road so he's asked that that concern be addressed.
Whetstone says the project is scheduled to start sometime in 2018 depending on available funding. He estimates the cost to be between 16 and 20-million dollars but none of that will be covered by the municipality.
Whetstone explains the reason for the temporary, two-lane bridge is that the only way around the construction would be a detour of at least twenty minutes, east to Varna and back to highway 21.
