CHAMBERLAIN TOWNSHIP – Have no fear, there are still ways to get around the Aidie Creek Road bridge closure in Chamberlain.
Travellers heading to Aidie Creek Gardens from the north can take Wawbewawa Road to connect to the road. Those travelling to the south from Kirkland Lake can hook up with the road by taking Chamberlain Road 5.
“(The township is) working on some (road) signs at this point, they’re sort of waiting on my answer on what kind of signs we’d like,” said Aidie Creek Gardens manager Jeff Warner in a telephone interview.
“They’re willing to help us with the cost of them. They’re not just going to put up anything we want anywhere, but they’re willing to help with some of the cost, which is kind of nice.”
A crack had appeared and was growing on a wingwall at one end of the bridge’s foundation.
When engineers went to place a crack-monitoring device on the bridge, they discovered the crack had grown in the interval.
The decision was then made to close the bridge.
Engineers have been investigating the crack and will report to Chamberlain council with a suggestion for a next step.
“Right now it’s in the engineer stage, they’ve got a company hired to design something,” said Warner of the bridge’s current status.
“They think they have an idea of a way to fix it rather than replace it.”
Warner said the expected impact on his business is that customers may come up to the road closed sign and then be confused about how to get to Aidie Creek Gardens, thus resulting in a potential loss of business.
“They don’t even know there’s another way in. So the main sign probably will be where the road closed sign is saying how to (get here),” said Warner.
He said after talking to Jon Schenk, the public works superintendent for Chamberlain and Charlton-Dack on April 12, Warner had just posted directions on Aidie Creek’s Facebook page.
“It turns out Jon saw it, too, so he said ‘I’m going to use that on the signs.’ I said ‘Sure, go ahead.’”
Warner said the township would “hopefully” post some sort of signage to let people know of the closure.
‘We’re just hoping (our customers) take the time to drive around,” he said.
“It sounds like a fairly quick repair (to the bridge) but does quick mean two months? Or does quick mean the summer and it would be done by the fall? I don’t know what ‘quick’ means.”
It’s not known at this time how long the Aidie Creek Bridge will be closed to the public.
Jamie Mountain is a Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) reporter for the Temiskaming Speaker. The LJI program is funded by the Government of Canada.
