Staff
With the reconstruction of portions of Victoria Avenue (Front to Nelson), Nelson Street (Victoria to Portage), and Veterans Avenue nearing an end, Bay City Contracting Ltd. now will be proceeding to Phase II of the biomass roads project—Portage Avenue from Nelson Street to First Street East.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said yesterday the contractor will be starting on the second stage next Tuesday (July 14), setting up traffic control signs, barriers, and detours routes around 11 a.m. that day.
As outlined in a letter sent out to all affected property owners, the following traffic control changes will be implemented July 14 until all the roadwork is completed (scheduled to be done by the third week in September):
•Portage Avenue from Nelson Street to Church Street will be closed to the general public, and no parking will be allowed on either side of this section of Portage Avenue.
•Concrete barriers will be installed along Church Street on the west and east side of Portage Avenue, where two dead-ends along Church Street will be created at the Portage Avenue intersection.
Motorists travelling along Church Street will not have access onto Portage Avenue from this intersection.
•Temporary wooden barriers, complete with “No Exit” signs and “Local Traffic Only” signs, will be installed at the intersections of Church and Mowat Avenue and Church and Victoria to inform the public of the traffic changes prior to reaching the Portage Avenue-Church Street intersection.
•All existing parking along Church Street between Portage and Victoria, as well as Portage and Mowat, will be maintained.
•A temporary wooden barrier, complete with a “No Exit” sign and “Local Traffic Only” sign, will be installed at the intersection of Scott and Portage on the south side of Scott informing the public that parking will be allowed on both sides of this section of the street, and that they can gain access to the public parking lot behind the post office, from July 14-Aug. 11.
After Aug. 11, Portage Avenue from Church Street to Scott Street will be closed to the public, and no parking will be allowed on either side of this section of Portage Avenue.
As well, access to the public parking lot behind the post office will be from the laneway entrance off Victoria Avenue.
Portage Avenue from Scott Street to First Street also will be closed to the public. No parking will be allowed on either side of this section.
The back laneway between the 200 block of Scott Street and 200 block of First Street will be closed off to the public at the Portage Avenue entrance.
All transport trucks and vehicles only will gain access to this laneway from the Mowat Avenue entrance.
“In order to ensure orderly delivery of goods and products to the businesses and properties abutting this laneway, business owners should contact their delivery companies to ensure that transport trucks back into the laneway from Mowat Avenue and to try to utilize smaller transport trucks during the construction stage for ease of movement in the laneway,” Brown wrote in the letter.
“It might be wise to ensure large transport trailers are off-loaded at night and not during regular business hours to ensure that the laneway is not blocked,” he added.
Also on Aug. 11, the back laneway between the 200 block of Scott Street and 200 block of Church Street will be closed off to the public at the Portage Avenue entrance.
All transport trucks and vehicles only will gain access to this laneway from the Church Street entrance.
In the near future (the exact date is still unknown), the traffic control lights at the Portage Avenue and Scott Street intersection will be shut off for one day, during which time flagmen will be directing traffic through this intersection.
This is necessary to allow the contractor to tie-in the new sanitary pipe in the existing sanitary sewer manhole in the middle of this intersection.
Brown also noted that once the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship is over, the Scott Street/Portage Avenue intersection will be closed for about seven days to complete the pipe work there.
Transport trucks will be re-routed along Church Street, Veterans Avenue, Sinclair Street, Victoria Avenue, and Front Street.
A notice will be provided one week prior to when this work will occur.
Also, temporary wooden barriers, with “No Exit” signs and “Local Traffic Only” signs, will be installed at the intersections of Scott and Mowat and Scott and Victoria Avenue to inform the public of the traffic changes prior to reaching the Portage/Scott intersection.
For more information, residents are encouraged to contact the town at 274-9893.
