Wasaga Widens Sidewalks, Rehabilitates Main Street Bridge

The Town of Wasaga Beach has just completed a major infrastructure rehabilitation project using investments from the Canada Community-Building Fund.

Wasaga invested in the rehabilitation of its historic Main Street Bridge, an important piece of infrastructure that connects residents and visitors to its downtown and beach area along the shores of Georgian Bay.

The Main Street Bridge is a major asset to the town, serving Wasaga’s 24,000 residents year-round. It’s also a connecting link to the community’s popular beach area, where 30,000 to 40,000 tourists flock during high season weekends. Most of these visitors also use the Main Street Bridge to get to Wasaga’s biggest attractions.

Rehabilitation of the bridge included patching, waterproofing, paving the concrete deck, removing existing expansion joints and converting to semi-integral abutments, replacing barriers, re-facing the concrete abutments, installing new bearing, sandblasting and painting the structural steel. The Town also relocated the existing watermain from north to south to ensure no interruption to municipal water service while the project was ongoing.

A key part of this project was aesthetic elements that were added. The sidewalks on either side of the bridge were widened to improve walkability to the downtown and beach, and new streetlighting was installed.

Main Street Bridge is now ready to welcome tourists for 2022. The Town expects the project will have a positive benefit to commercial businesses on the beachfront, with more pedestrian and vehicular traffic as a result of bridge improvements.