The construction on the Thunder Bay Expressway, originally scheduled to end last fall, could continue next spring, a Ministry of Transportation official confirmed Monday.
“There is a possibility that they may be back next year cleaning that up, but most of that work will be off the highway,” said Wayne Prystanski, regional contracts engineer with the MTO.
The contractor, Carillion Canada, began work on the Thunder Bay Expressway in the summer of 2009. The work was supposed to be finished by the fall of 2010. The total cost for the project is about $21 million.
Because the contractor is late, they do have to pay a penalty.
“It’s taken the contractor one extra year to complete the project,” said Prystanski. “Maybe there was a little bit more work than they thought, a little bit more work involved with it. They’ve had their difficulties.”
Prystanski said the reason for the delays is because of the way the contractor managed and scheduled the contract.
“Since they are an outside contractor, they have to come in and retain services of local contractors as their (sub-contractors),” he said.
“There’s been quite a bit of work going on within the Thunder Bay area as the public is well aware, so actually finding sub-contractors to do work for them, they could have had a difficult time doing that, too.”
The work is in its final stage right now with the Red River Road intersection of the Expressway all that’s left to finish. That work should be finished by early November.
But while the paving is ongoing at that intersection, there will continue to be delays. Prystanski said hopefully these will be the last of the delays.
The MTO has been receiving numerous complaints from the public about how long the construction has taken.
“The public must understand this area is the busiest section of roadwork in the Thunder Bay area,” said Prystanski, noting that more than 20,000 vehicles travel the Thunder Bay Expressway daily.
After the Red River Road construction is complete, the off-highway work still have to be done is replacing the temporary lighting with permanent lighting.
