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The municipality is moving ahead with plans to apply for funding to revamp Dufferin Avenue in Wallaceburg.

Chatham-Kent is applying to the province’s Connecting Links program to rehabilitate Dufferin from the McNaughton/Lisgar intersection to just west of Walnut.

The province has increased funding for bridge repairs and replacement, up from a maximum of $3-million to $5-million

Director of Engineering, Chris Thibert says they’re not sure at this point how much the project will cost.

“What we know is the above-surface condition of the road and the sidewalk and the curbs,” Thibert says “What we don’t know at this time is the underground infrastructure and the condition of it.”

Thibert says a consultant will be hired to use video inspection to determine the full scope of the project before the application can be submitted to the province.

Only certain stretches of road qualify for the Connecting Links program, having to directly connect municipal and provincial roadways.

In Chatham-Kent, that limits the scope to Grand Avenue and St Clair Street in Chatham, and Dufferin Avenue and McNaughton Avenue in Wallaceburg.

If the Connecting Links funding is approved, the design for the project would be carried out in 2021 with a construction tender award in the spring of 2022.