The Westham Island Bridge will getting a much needed retrofit later this summer.

At Monday’s Delta council meeting, civic politicians endorsed a staff report to provide relief from its enforcement of Delta’s noise bylaw to allow for the work to be done between August of this year and March of 2019.

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TransLink undertook emergency repair work on the century-old span in 2017, but now intends to engage a third-party contractor to undertake further work to address deterioration that impacts the safety and operation of the bridge.

According to a Delta staff report, site prep work will begin June 1 with the project starting Aug. 1. The work will be done in two phases to replace 30 deteriorated items and address concerns from the farming community.

Acting director of engineering Hugh Fraser said some of the closures will be short-term – 15 minutes to half an hour -- while others will be longer, potentially a 12-hour period to replace the main planking.

“TransLink has agreed to advance notice to all the residents of Westham Island and 24-hour contact with the residents,” said Fraser. “They have listened to the items that have been raised by the Delta Farmers’ Institute and they are taking a number of steps so the closures will be kept to a minimum.”