Staff
Job wrapping up
seven weeks
ahead of schedule
Thanks to a last-minute change in paving, the Portage Avenue underpass now is scheduled to be re-opened to two lanes of traffic tomorrow at 8 a.m.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said late this morning that Pioneer Contracting would pave the entire underpass today.
“We’re going to let it sit overnight, cool down, and then tomorrow morning we’ll have it open. All the traffic control will be gone,” he noted.
“At 8 a.m., the two lanes will be open, but not all the barriers will be gone,” he added.
“We’ll pull them by the end of the day.”
Brown said the contractor was supposed to start paving on Wednesday, but he received a phone call yesterday saying they could do it all today so the schedule was moved up a day.
As well, general contractor JTJ Contracting worked over the weekend to ensure all of its on-road work was done in anticipation of paving this week.
“Everything’s went well in the last little while,” said Brown, adding “to get it done sooner is better.”
Brown did note there still are two outstanding tasks related to the underpass reconstruction job that must be completed in the near future, but these will take place off the roadway.
These include the installation of perimeter fencing along the Portage Avenue right-of-way property lines and upgrades to the pump house, which are in the design stage.
