NORTHEAST — Eleven rural communities will receive nearly $4.9 million in provincial grants from the Rural Integrated Roads for Growth (RIRG) program to rebuild 14 bridges and large culverts.
Among those, the RM of Pleasantdale No. 398 will receive $351,000 and the RM of Torch River No. 488 will receive $46,500 from this program.
The RM of Pleasantdale has eight bridges within the RM.
"The RIRG grant has a maximum of two years where which the work has to be done by," said Acting Administrator Trevor Peterson. "This allows our RM to split the project in two, doing the planning and engineering in 2024 and then in 2025 doing the construction. Council could choose to complete the project all in one year if the budget allows for it, but it is anticipated that budget considerations would leave the project being split into two."
The RM of Torch River was also approved for $46,500 to replace a box culvert.
When combined with municipal dollars, the total estimated value of the projects is more than $12.3 million.
“We prioritized investments in rural bridges and roads to keep our economy going during the pandemic,” Highways Minister Lori Carr said. “Four years ago, Saskatchewan pledged to rebuild 100 bridges over four years. With the announcement of this latest round of projects, we will have rebuilt or replaced 105 rural bridges.”
RIRG assists rural municipalities to build and upgrade local infrastructure. The program provides grants up to 50 per cent of each project's total cost, to a maximum of $500,000.
