Fourteen Ontario municipalities will share in $30 million in provincial funding to repair roads and bridges.

The province announced the funding through its Connecting Links program. The program covers a series of costs relating to the design, construction, renewal, rehabilitation and replacement of municipal roads and bridges that connect two ends of a provincial highway through a community or to a border crossing.

"By investing in our roads and bridges we're connecting people to jobs, supporting the movement of goods and creating economic growth in local communities," said Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney. "This funding not only helps municipalities maintain local infrastructure, but also supports projects that make roads safer, such as improvements to pedestrian crossings."

Through Connecting Links, municipalities will receive up to 90 percent of eligible project costs to a maximum of $3 million for road projects. The province permanently raised the maximum funding available for bridges this year from $3 million to $5 million to reflect the higher costs of maintaining and repairing bridges compared to roads.

Receiving funding under this year’s program are:

• Dryden – Traffic Signal Replacements along Duke Street (Highway 594) and Government Street (Highway 17) – $1,119,520
• Haldimand County – Resurfacing Broad Street (Highway 3) in Dunnville – $820,665
• Innisfil – Improving pedestrian crossing on Queen Street – $59,211
• Kapuskasing – Resurfacing Government Road (Gurney Road Easterly) – $3,000,000
• Lambton Shores – Ontario Street bridge replacement and widening in Grand Bend – $4,853,952
• Prince Edward County – Pedestrian and road safety improvements at Highway 33 intersection – $266,848
• Renfrew – Reconstruction of O'Brien Road (Highway 60) between Gillan Road and Mask Road – $3,000,000
• Saugeen Shores – Culvert extension on Railway Street – $465,321
• Smiths Falls – Beckwith Street Renewal between Russell Street and Elmsley Street – $1,895,368
• Timmins – Reconstruction of Algonquin Boulevard – $3,000,000
• Wellington North – Reconstruction of Queen Street East (Highway 89) in Mount Forest – $1,420,000
• West Grey – Replacement of Garafraxa Street culvert – $329,378
• West Nipissing – Design work for the Champlain Bridge rehabilitation/replacement – $442,351
• West Perth – Resurfacing Ontario Road (Highway 8) – $530,172

"Connecting Links are roads that are important to both local residents and the provincial transportation network as a whole," said Bill Weber, Mayor of Lambton Shores. "It's important to have provincial funding that helps ensure these key roads and bridges are kept in good repair."

Across the province, there are a total of 352 kilometres of connecting links, with 70 bridges in 77 municipalities.