THUNDER BAY — Finnway General Contractor Inc. is officially the contractor for the city's Victoria Avenue Reconstruction project.
Finnways' bid of $18.4 million came in on budget and the tender was awarded to them, said Adam Ruberto, project manager with KGS Group (the consultant firm overseeing the project), in an update to city council on Monday.
The city will be meeting with Finnway to finalize plans for the demolition of Victoriaville Centre and set a preliminary schedule for each phase of the project, Aaron Ward, manager of engineering told Newswatch in an interview.
A project team will reshape Victoria Avevue and Syndicate Avenue with the removal of Victoriaville Centre. The street will be reopened to motorists, with added bike lanes, widened sidewalks for pedestrians and patio space for new businesses.
Ward noted that once the demolition of the mall begins, the public will still be able to access businesses such as Thrive Fitness, Victoriaville Physiotherapy Centre, and Sweet Cherry Spa.
Although the report was for information only, it did spark a discussion on the plans for parking once the street reopens.
Coun. Shelby Ch'ng said she had a conversation with the owner of Victoriaville Physiotherapy Centre, who said they are concerned about parking issues in the area.
Through consultation, the owner said they want to have parking spots on their side of the street, Ward told council, however the city has no plans to add parking on the north side.
“We did meet with them to explain the rationale ... If you were to park there today and have to walk to Victoriaville physiotherapy, it would be a longer distance today than when this is done afterwards,” said Ward.
“Today, you'd have to park on either Brody Street or Justice Avenue, park across the street, and walk through the mall to get there. So, by using the parking on the south side and using the pedestrian crossover, it's actually a shorter path of travel than what exists today.”
Coun. Rajni Agarwal followed up on the north side parking concerns by asking “would it not be more conducive to have the parking on the north side rather than the south?”
“Because I understand the wider sidewalks are going to be utilized for outside patios and dining areas, so we can encourage sunshine on those patios as opposed to the north side, which may have some more restrictions on the nice warm sunny short summers we have.”
There is more space available to put the parking on the south side as the north side sidewalks were closer to the building's property line, said Alison Barrett, municipal engineer for KGS Group.
KGS Group’s landscape architect, Eric Conway, added that the North South Plaza along Syndicate Avenue “has lots of flexible plaza space that can be used by different vendors.”
Ward elaborated further, stating that there are more private businesses on the north side of Victoria than the south, which is primarily the Civic Centre. Therefore, the widened sidewalks on the north side will have more room for pop-up summer patios space for private businesses.
