The long detours are over for residents and farmers southwest of Casselman.
The Touchette Bridge, which carries Route 650 over the South Nation River reopened on July 25. The bridge had been closed for a year for an extensive rehabilitation project.
On June 6, 2022, The Nation council awarded the contract to replace the deck and one of the abutments on the bridge to Facca Inc. at a cost of $5,077,090, including sales tax. At that time, the cost of the project had already increased by $1.2 million. The federal and Ontario governments also provided a combined $2.1 million to The Nation to repair the bridge.
The Touchette Bridge was built in 1950 by the former Township of Cambridge municipality and named after Monsignor Joseph-Hercules Touchette, a priest who served in Casselman from 1893 to 1953.
Touchette Bridge photos by James Morgan
