CORNWALL, Ontario – The Federal Bridge Corporation said Tuesday morning it plans to remove the water-based pillars from the St. Lawrence River – contrary to a message emanating from city hall Monday night.
Councillors passed a motion Monday night calling on the bridge corporation to explain why the pillars won’t be removed – but it turns out the plan was to take them out of the river anyway.
“The plan was to always finish the project,” said bridge corporation spokesperson Andre Girard when he was contacted by this newspaper Tuesday morning.
Girard added Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy has been sent a letter outlining just that.
Things were different Monday night, when Coun. Andre Rivette railed against what was thought to be a decision to leave the pillars in the water because it would be too expensive to remove them.
But Micheline Dube, president and CEO of the bridge corporation, took issue with a Seaway News report from Monday’s council meeting.
“This article is of great concern to me as it implies a change in our project direction,” she said in a statement. “I have consistently demonstrated to be fully committed to the removal of the piers as originally planned.
“We are presently focusing on completing the ongoing work this season before winter strikes. Let me reassure you that we are looking at options to complete the removal of the in-water piers.”
Councillors had directed O’Shaughnessy to send a letter to the Federal Bridge Corporation seeking answers on the issue. The city was also to seek support from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) and local MP Guy Lauzon.
“Everything was going to be taken out of the water except for the one on the land,” said Rivette.
That water is adjacent to a swirling section of the St. Lawrence River that was the site of a pair of tugboat sinkings this summer.
City CAO Norm Levac said the bridge corporation had issued a tender on the removal of the pillars but found out that the work would be too expensive to undertake. Levac said the bridge corporation then reissued a tender for bridge demolition without any provisions for removing the pillars from the water.
