A culvert is set to be replaced and two bridges are scheduled to be repaired on Six Nations after the community identified them as high priorities in a 2022 inspection.

Six Nations Public Works have received two Band Council Resolutions (BCRs) from Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC).The approvals came during the Sept. 18 General Finance meeting as Public Works needed the BCRs to provide to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) as part of its funding approval process.

Six Nations Director of Public Works Michael Montour detailed the first project that will see a culvert replaced on Seneca Road between Second and Third Line Road. He says the communities culverts and bridges are inspected every two years. With the last inspection coming in 2022, this culvert was identified as the community's highest priority bridge or culvert. Montour says its estimated that this project will cost $500,000 and that when the culvert is replaced it will have a lifespan of 30-40 years.

Montour says the project was recently approved for construction funding although he says the timeline for that is uncertain.

"We've been able to work with ISC for completing a design and we've recently been approved for construction funding," he said. "So we've made really good progress on this in a very short time, which is great. However, we're not sure if we're able to proceed to construction here in the fall, or in the spring. That's yet to be determined, but we'll definitely provide notice to the community in advance as best as we can."

Montour and Public Works received the second BCR for a project that will see two bridges that were identified as the second and third top priorities within the community to be rehabilitated. The first bridge is located Third Line Road between Seneca and Chiefswood Road. The second is located on Onondaga Road between Fifth and Sixth Line Roads. He says this project is estimated to cost just over $3 million.

Public Works are looking to "bundle" these bridges together to accelerate the process and aim to make designs for both bridges' rehabilitation and construction at the same time to help close the community's current infrastructure gap.

"We're going to design them, do all that work at the same time. And then when it comes to construction we're going to that at the same time as well," he said.

"ISC is supportive of that approach, which is great because we get to progress through our priorities fairly quickly," Montour added. "We're hoping to secure funding, get the design done and move into construction next year."

Coun. Greg Frazer says SNEC should also look to different sources of revenue to fund projects like this to have the infrastructure issues addressed in a more timely manner instead of waiting on ISC's approval.

"We're going to have to find our own sourced revenue, I think in a lot of these situations. I think waiting for ISC is always a delay and as we wait a lot of our infrastructure deteriorates and I think it's important that we look towards our own sourced revenue."

SNEC provided the resolutions to Public Works for ISC's funding approval process to begin preparations for the upcoming projects. 

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