Duane Hicks
Parking no longer is allowed along Fourth Street West and Wright Avenue during the construction on King’s Highway.
Council amended the traffic control bylaw last night to reflect this change, which will remain in effect until the project is completed in September.
Town clerk Lisa Slomke said the parking restriction is a response to the “significant traffic congestion” along the detour route on Friday and Saturday.
Town staff had a meeting with the OPP and Canada Border Services, and brainstormed about ways “to help traffic and alleviate some of the congestion and control the movement of traffic during this necessary construction period,” she noted.
One of the issues identified was related to parking on Fourth Street West and Wright Avenue.
The traffic control bylaw normally allows calendar parking on those streets.
“This has proven to cause problems, especially with the large commercial motor vehicles as they travel the detour route as the width of the street is compromised and it makes it difficult to turn, specifically corners,” said Slomke.
“No parking” signs were up along the route as of this morning.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown, meanwhile, noted there were concerns about long traffic lines and related problems along the detour this past Friday and Saturday.
He said the town will put up more signs.
“The town is going to try to control the congestion early in the morning,” Brown remarked.
“It looks like the lines [to the border] are back,” he added.
“We haven’t had it since 2008.”
The town will put up more signs in advance of this weekend to better direct tourists through the detour and prevent congestion.
As for the project itself, the King’s Highway reconstruction is moving along.
Bay City Contractors has installed five water and sanitary services along Third Street West, two six-inch water valves, and more than 168 metres of six-inch watermain.
By Thursday, they should reach Lillie Avenue with the watermain, then will have to install the storm sewer system.
The first stage of the construction—from just east of York Avenue to just east of Webster Avenue—is supposed to be done by July 24.
Other jobs
The granular material foundation for the new salt and sand shelter at the Public Works yard has undergone compaction testing.
The layout for concrete work will take place this week, with intention to have the concrete poured by July 1.
The storage shelter should be built by mid-July.
Likewise, one of the foundations for the new recycling transfer station on Sixth Street West was poured June 12.
All of the electrical work has been completed, and the wireless Internet control equipment is on-site and will be installed soon.
The second foundation will be poured this week.
The new equipment—consisting of two new stationary compactor units with properly-sized hoppers and four 40-cubic-yard roll-off containers—will be installed by mid-July.
Meanwhile, the new stand-by generator at the water treatment plant will arrive next week and be installed promptly.
As well, Tom Veert Contracting will be doing in-ground spot repairs on pipes in the Robert Moore School yard once school is out for the year.
And 20 new lighting poles for the waterfront have arrived, which the Fort Frances Power Corp. began installing last week.
