THUNDER BAY — City project engineer Mike Vogrig is hopeful that the detour on River Street will be gone in six weeks.
Crews continue to work on the single structural multi-plate metal arch, which will be mounted on concrete footings.
Spring flooding in early May 2022 caused the collapse of one of the twin culverts, which carried the waters of McVicar Creek beneath River Street just north of Algoma Street.
“[Crews] are just started the back filling,” Vogrig said Monday. “Now we have at least 10 days probably to get to the top of the culvert, then they have to start doing some utility work.”
Once the project is complete, Vogrig mentioned that pedestrians and drivers won’t notice a big difference.
Paving of the road will be the last thing that gets done for the project, which has seen several delays in the completion date.
Vogrig said this is a unit price contract, which means the timeline won’t affect the budget of the project.
“Typically, where you see changes in costs [in the project is] if there's a change to work or there's extra work [the needs to get done],” he added. “[There have been] a few things that we've had to take care of over the course of the project. We'll find out what that final number is once the project is complete, and then we'll have a better idea of where we end up with the back filling.”
The work to replace the culvert required the removal of sanitary sewer pipes that had been supported by the structure.
The new culvert is expected to be more resilient, with its thicker galvanized material, giving it an expected lifespan of 75 to 90 years.
Thunder Bay-based Taranis Contracting secured the contract to rebuild the culvert and roadway, with total costs estimated at $2.5 million.
