Underpass repair work to resume in spring

The Portage Avenue underpass was re-opened to two lanes last Wednesday as work on the site has wrapped up for the winter.
In an interview Monday, Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown reminded the public to continue using only the east sidewalk through the winter since the west sidewalk is not ready yet.
“There’s signs on both sides telling pedestrians not to go there, as well as gates and flagging,” he noted. “We don’t want anyone hurt.”
While late last month the town had notified the public both lanes of the underpass would be closed for several days between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. so that 40-foot steel sheet pilings could be removed from the northwest wall there, Brown said that part of the job will wait until next year.
“We came to an understanding. The contractor [JTJ Contracting Ltd. Inc.], he’s responsible for the ‘global stability’ [of the wall] during the construction phase, and his designer requested they be left in [over the winter] at no cost to the town,” explained Brown.
“So they’ll be getting pulled in the spring once the frost is out of the ground.”
Work next year will include finishing the west sidewalk, the reconstruction of the east wall, and removal of the east sidewalk. Vehicular traffic again will be reduced to one lane, with a signal to regulate traffic flow.
“Once it’s warm enough to get going and the frost is out of the ground, we’ll start up again. Hopefully, we’ll be done by Nov. 1,” said Brown.
The underpass reconstruction work originally was scheduled to start in May and be completed by Nov. 1 of this year.
However, a lack of geo-technical information caused a delay in getting the project started this spring, with work not commencing until early August.
Brown noted the entire project was supposed to take 22 weeks. So far, work has gone on for about 15 weeks—with the job not quite half done.
“We basically chewed up 15 weeks of a 22-week job,” he stressed. “We’re going to have some good discussions with the contractor here. We had to make sure we got off the road and had two lanes open for the winter.
“Now, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a good work plan for next year. All of the unknowns are just about resolved now,” added Brown.
“But you know what? It’s a main structure in town that’s just about at the end of its life cycle. They built this thing back in 1958—you never know about the unknowns until you start digging.
“Have patience. Once it’s done, it’s done. We’ve got another 50-60 years out of it,” he noted, adding salt is a key factor in the erosion of the underpass walls.
Even with high-strength concrete, salt breaks down the hydration bonds in the structure.