Balmoral Street construction reduced due to ballooning cost

THUNDER BAY -- City Council has agreed with its administration’s recommendation to reduce the scope of Balmoral Street construction this summer, due to a 67 per cent increase to its projected cost.

The first phase of Balmoral’s construction was to have rebuilt the street from the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway to Alloy Drive. At its meeting on Monday, council diminished that target by a block to end this year's construction at Hewitson Street.

Despite the reduced work in 2016, the city’s director of engineering Kayla Dixon is confident the project will be completed in 2018 on schedule.

“If we stay on the scope of work as outlined, if it would take longer than three years. We propose this would still be completed in three years so the Harbour Expressway would get back on to what was originally next year’s project,” Dixon said.

Unanticipated costs in water runoff management and the addition of roadside trails drove the original project’s scope up from $4.2 million to $6.9 million since its August 2015 design release.

Dixon said those plans were based on running a single storm sewer down the middle of the street. Further examination proved the road’s flat grading necessitates a twin sewage system, adding $2 million to the cost.

The additional $700,000 resulted from public consultations that widened the scope of the design. It will now include asphalt, multi-use trails on both sides of the road, complete with signage, paint markings, retaining walls and artificial turf along the curb’s edge.

Balmoral’s intersection at the Harbour Expressway will also undergo reconstruction to accommodate the new trails.

When all phases are complete, the renovated transportation artery will reach from the floodway to Beverly Street.

The city’s decision to shorten the project’s first phase will keep its cost at $4.2 million.

Dixon told council the one-block setback in this summer’s construction will be worth the tradeoff when the work is complete.

“We’re going to continue. Just because we can’t do as much, we’ll still be able to do what we want to have -- so that when that road is finished, it will be what we really want.”

The first phase’s tender will close this week.