THUNDER BAY - A construction project that has slowed traffic on an arterial route across the city will soon be free of work crews and traffic cones.
Balmoral Street is set to completely reopen to four lanes late next week, as construction crews finish up minor landscaping projects along the side of the road.
“We are in the final stages,” said Mike Vogrig, project engineer with the city of Thunder Bay. “[Crews] are putting down artificial turf on the boulevards. Once that is completed, all the tree planting and landscaping is basically complete, so the road should be opened up after that.”
The $4.2 million project began in early summer and experienced some delays in June due to high amounts of rain.
“It got very wet for about month there so there was a lot of dewatering while the contractors were installing the storm sewers, so that probably pushed the schedule back by about a week or two, but they have been able to keep things on schedule ever since,” Vogrig said.
Artificial turf is being installed on the boulevards because of drainage and grass issues. Vogrig added that paving the boulevard not only doesn’t look good, but doesn’t allow for proper storm water management.
“We decided to do a trail with artificial turf in the boulevard,” Vogrig said. “We can get more drainage through the turf into the ground so infiltration for storm water management and we don’t run into the grass kill that we get with sod due to salt and winter clearing operations.”
The first phase of the construction project on Balmoral was originally going to stretch from the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway to Alloy Drive. However, due to increasing costs, the scope of the project this year was reduced to only go as far as Hewitson Street.
Vogrig said there are three or four more stages to complete on Balmoral, covering reconstruction of the street all the way to Beverly Street. The next phase could start in a year or two, but will depend on the budget that is approved by Thunder Bay city council.
