My husband and I, residents of Chester Basin, were shocked and heartbroken to hear that the historic Gold River Rail Bridge is set to be demolished and replaced with a new bridge. We very often enjoy walks across it and down to the river where we always marvel at its beauty and history (built around 1905!).

According to articles online, they have already secured 1 million dollars for demolition, and there have been bids submitted for a new bridge that range from 10 to 20 million dollars...
https://chester.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Tender/Detail/295d4831-bbe8-4c6c-861e-68aecdc40327

The Martins River Bridge and Mushamush Bridge, which are around the same age, have recently been beautifully restored. Why can't this one be restored as well?

According to Chester Deputy Warden Floyd Shatford in an online article, "We tried everything but there was no way to use the bridge, so we as council determined we needed to replace it regardless of the cost.” To us, this quote Is unacceptable... "regardless of cost"?!

We are not blindly asking for the bridge to be restored – we want to have the bridge reassessed by a third party engineering firm (not anyone connected with the current administration and contractors, which is currently the case. Apparently there is a major conflict of interest with the engineers who previously assessed it). We want to see price comparisons between demolishing and rebuilding, vs restoring the old bridge. Ideally, we want to see the bridge restored, just like Martin's River and Mushamush, if we can prove that it is fixable, and that it will actually cost less (or equal) to the demolition and rebuilding of a new bridge. 

We want to do everything we can to save this bridge and we need your signatures to do so. Let's find a way to save a piece of our history before it's too late!