THUNDER BAY — Work will soon be underway on the second phase of Thunder Bay's waterfront streetscape project on Red River Road, which is driven by the replacement of the water main and sanitary sewer systems. Work was completed on the Court Street section last year.
This week, an open house for inquiries about the construction slated for this summer took place at the Red Lion Smokehouse. The information session was hosted by representatives from the Waterfront District Business Improvement Area, Nadin Contracting and the City of Thunder Bay.
Kara Pratt, executive director of the Waterfront District BIA, said the work will take place in three phases throughout the summer.
"We hope that we'll have the intersection — the Cumberland, Red River Road intersection — open when we get to the third phase," Pratt said. "But we never know what's underneath the ground, because we do have some of the oldest infrastructure in the city here."
She added that the plan is to finish up one phase and move on to the next without delays.
"The phasing allows less impact to the businesses," she said.
"The businesses are still open and just because there is construction doesn't mean that they've closed. You might have to walk through some sand or walk around a couple of barricades for a couple of days but the businesses are open and they'll be excited to see everybody."
Norm Nadin, co-owner of Nadin Contracting Ltd., is doing the construction and said besides making sure the businesses are accessible, the most important thing is safety for all the pedestrians that walk through the area.
"People just come to see what we're doing and we're used to that," he said, adding that the safety measures come into full play when crews are not on the job site.
"Being a downtown core with bars, we really have to make sure everything is safe so people can't get themselves in a situation when we're not there to help out," Nadin said. "We really pay attention to safety more so on the nighttime crowd that might be jumping from bar to bar."
Upon finishing the Court Street work, Nadin says the biggest challenge was what they found underground from the early 1900s.
"A lot of it was old piping and we weren't sure exactly what it did," he said. "We had to make sure that we were disconnecting things like old water lines that went to buildings that are no longer there. We had to make sure we weren't going to hamper something that was (still needed), especially after the road was all done.
Nadin suspects they will find a lot of the same thing under Red River Road and says they anticipate encountering bedrock that will be challenging and slow things down.
Construction phase schedule
Phase one
Beginning mid-April, the first phase of construction will begin along Red River Road. This will involve the closure and construction of the Cumberland Street and Red River Road intersection up to St. Paul Street. A directional change will be implemented on Cooke Street beginning May 1, with traffic flowing west to east. The staging within Mall Street, the crosswalk by Scotiabank might also begin at this time.
Phase two
The second phase will take place with the maintenance of closure at Cumberland Street and Red River Road intersection and the construction zone will expand through to Mall Street.
Phase three
In the third phase, the Red River Road and Cumberland Street intersection will reopen up to St. Paul Street, with the finalization of the Red River Road section from St. Paul Street to Court Street.
The installation of granite planters on Court Street and the installation of lock stone will commence as soon as the ground is sufficiently thawed.
Chronicle-Journal/Local Journalism Initiative
