Duane Hicks
Water tower
to be down for
two-three weeks
Phase II of the biomass road construction project—which this year will see the reconstruction of Portage Avenue from First Street to Third Street, and Fifth Street to Sixth Street—will start up next Monday, Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown confirmed late Friday.
The first phase of the work will be the replacement of sewer, water, and storm sewer infrastructure at the intersections of Portage Avenue and Third Street East, and Portage Avenue and Fifth Street, which means the underpass will be closed to all vehicular traffic for a 10-day period (May 10-20), noted Brown.
Brown stressed this closure is necessary to get the work done and is not a surprise, adding he informed mayor and council as early as last September that this would be happening.
After that phase of the job, Portage Avenue between Second and Third Street East will be shut down for road work.
But motorists will be able to access the underpass via Third Street, either from Mowat Avenue or Victoria Avenue.
The third phase of work will be Portage Avenue from Fifth to Sixth Street, with the underpass being accessible from Fifth Street.
The town met with emergency services, Bay City Contracting, and Engineering Northwest on Thursday to confirm scheduling.
Appropriate steps have been taken to ensure continuous emergency services will be provided to north-end residents during the 10 days the underpass will be closed.
On Thursday evening, the town held a meeting and invited property owners in the vicinity of this year’s construction.
As previously reported, the sidewalk on the east side of the 700 and 900 blocks of Portage Avenue will not be removed as was first planned.
Brown said while the construction won’t start until May 10, the contractor will be in town this week to put up signage and lay out temporary water lines.
Phase II of the biomass road construction project is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 17 but may be finished sooner than that, noted Brown, adding the length of road to be reconstructed is less than it was last year.
Brown said he will be making regular progress reports to town council every two weeks so the public can keep up to date on how the project is proceeding this spring and summer.
Looking down the road, Brown said the town soon will tendering for repairs to the Caul Bridge on Frog Creek Road.
“We’ve got to do some maintenance work to the bridge, and change out the guard rails and approach rails coming into it, so that will be tendered here in the next two weeks,” he explained.
While the project still has to be tendered and the contract awarded, Brown estimated the road will be closed out to the airport from July 5-Aug. 3.
As such, the only way to get to the airport will be to take Hill Road off Highway 11/71, then go onto Frog Creek Road, and approach the airport from the west.
As well, Brown said town residents can expect a water restriction sometime in late June/early July due to a required inspection of the water tower on July 8.
He explained the water tower, which was repainted in 2008, must be inspected, which will involve draining the tank,
inspecting it, doing any work if deemed necessary, then refilling the tank, re-chlorinatng it, and sending out water samples for testing.
The water tower will be down for a two- to three-week period, Brown estimated.
What will not be happening is the reconstruction of Scott Street from Reid Avenue to Colonization Road East since the town still has not heard from the MTO regarding “Connecting Link” funding.
“It’s no different from last year,” noted Brown. “Here we are, the first of May, where we should be starting to do work, and we don’t have anything.
“We tendered it last year, and we don’t have any information on the grant.”
Last spring, town council awarded, in principle, Tender No. 09-OF-02 to Tom Veert Contracting Ltd. at an estimated cost of $1,966,569.50, with the understanding that once Ministry of Transportation funding is in place, the town would execute the contract documents.
But after failing to receive provincial funding to do it, the town formed an agreement with Tom Veert Contracting Ltd. to extend the prices they quoted last year into this year just in case the town gets the money to do the job this spring.
