THUNDER BAY – Motorists in the city should be aware of several big road projects that will affect travel around Thunder Bay.
A stretch of Cumberland Street North between McVicar Street and Howe Street is now closed to traffic as crews work on capping and removing the existing water main.
Brian Newman, City of Thunder Bay project engineer, told Newswatch in an interview that they are removing the water main on Cumberland and installing a larger water main at McVicar St.
From there crews will work their way back down Cumberland to Villa Street and then to Tupper Street to finish the rest of the grading work.
Newman said road closures in the area will be kept to a minimum as long as possible.
“We're going to keep the road closures more confined and tighter as opposed to shutting the whole block down,” Newman said.
“The intent here is to keep Cumberland shut down for the short term, just to get all the underground work done, the streetscaping, that type of thing, and once that's kind of under control, then we get more towards the roundabout,” Newman said.
However, by July, he said, the city will close Cumberland to Red River Road entirely.
“Red River Road will be open by then, so that'll add another east-west connection. Water Street will remain open, so it'll just be this one chunk. And once this gets done, potentially, we could get Cumberland reopened for a block-to-block,” Newman said.
Red River Road is expected to be reopened in the next two weeks, according to Newman.
“I would say by this Friday, possibly early next week, all the paver work will be done. So, the roadwork itself will be complete. They're installing trees as we speak, like on early mornings, later days, rainy days, that type of thing. We're trying to get as much of the landscape done as we can within those planter pots,” Newman said.
Residents should expect to see Water Street closed to traffic in August.
Newman said, “there's going to be a point where you just can't keep it going anymore.”
“There's a lot of excavation there and a lot of surface works that you just can't keep traffic flowing along Water Street.”
While city crews are working on the roundabout project on Water, a $3 million bus terminal expansion will be done at the same time, as well as road work on Cumberland between Van Norman Street and Camelot Street.
Large trucks travelling north of the marina to get to the Chemtrade Chemicals Canada Ltd or Richardson Elevators, the city will install a temporary road access “because they can't get through the roundabout at Pearl Street,” said Newman.
“It's going to be a busy general area for the next 6 months,” Newman said.
The Cumberland Street roundabout project is expected to be completed by October.
In the meantime, a reconstruction project on High Street between River Street and Van Norman Street will start next month.
Newman said the project will not be a full rebuild, but residents will feel the impact.
“It's a rough section of road, but it's a lot of sewer and water work, curb, gutter, sidewalks, streets, all that type of stuff. So, that's kind of another north-south street that's gonna be impacted. It kind of impacts all these areas, so keeping Water Street open is that much more important to make sure people have ways to travel,” Newman said.
On the south side of the city, Simpson Street will see road closures at the beginning of July.
Newman said they will restart the $5 million Simpson Street reconstruction project from Dease Street to Victoria Avenue.
The major reconstruction project has been ongoing in the area, which has included replacement of sewer, water and stormwater pipes, resurfacing roadways and street lights on multiple roads such as Dease, Ogden, Cameron, and Simpson streets.
Newman said the city decided to delay the project because of the Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race on May 19.
Instead, the city opted to start work on Leith Street between Simpson and May Street.
“The intent there is to finish up all of Simpson Street this year from Victoria right through to Charry's Corner and then get one final lift or top lift paving done by the end of the year. So, it'd be like a brand-new street,” Newman said.
