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High Street to reopen as wall construction shuts down

Structural work on High Street wall has been completed but leftover finishing touches to be addressed in 2018.
High Street new wall
High Street will reopen Thursday, November 23, 2017 after being closed since June for construction on the retaining wall. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – A section of High Street closed for the past six months for construction of the new retaining wall will reopen on Thursday.

Construction on the $2.1 million project is substantially complete allowing for through traffic on the roadway. High Street had been closed between John and Bay streets since work began in June. In order to build the new wall, crews had to demolish the old wall and the road above, remove rock to install footings and foundations for the new wall. They also built a new accessible ramp and set of stairs.

City engineer Mike Vogrig said all of the structural work on the wall has been done but there are some elements of the project which will need to be picked up next year.

“They weren’t able to complete some of the surface work like repaving Cornwall (Avenue), which is above the wall, or replacing the curb and gutter and pavement on High Street which is in front of the wall,” Vogrig said. “That’s the kind of work that’s going to carry over next year.”

Construction was halted in August when crews that were breaking up rock struck and detonated an old explosive device that Vogrig previously said could have been there for as long as 100 years.

Nobody was injured and there was no damage to property.

“The site itself was closed down for a week and then a number of recommendations came out that added time and work to the schedule that we had to do,” Vogrig said.

“Overall, when we went through the delays associated with the work that was about three to four weeks. We had an original completion date of Oct. 31 so that already put us into the end of November and then there some weather delays, delays getting the custom panels and things like that.”

Vogrig said there might be financial implications to the city for the portion of the work being carried over to next year.

“There’s a contingency with every project that we run for unknowns. It’s just a determination now whether the contingency covers that overage or not,” Vogrig said.

“If it does, then we got it in the contract value and if it goes over we’ll be back to council asking for additional funds to complete the work.”

The portion of Cornwall Avenue above the wall will be closed past the furthest driveway access until the project is completely finished. The accessible ramp and stairs are not expected to be usable until next year when railings are installed.



About the Author: Matt Vis

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