CORNWALL – Drivers will have to navigate a muddy, ripped up, northern section of Pitt Street for at least another week.
The work to replace a large box culvert under the road, near McKenzie Street, has been going on since mid-October. The area had been controlled with flag people but the contractor installed temporary traffic lights last week.
Infrastructure Supervisor Michael Fawthrop told Cornwall Newswatch the project is on time and is scheduled to be finished and reopened by Thursday, Nov. 15.
Fawthrop said “the underground should be completed by the end of this week, maybe into early of the following week,” with paving, landscaping and cleanup to close out the job.
Fawthrop said they had hoped to get the project started earlier in the year but “we’re on target for what the contractor proposed” for the schedule.
The box culvert is 1.8 meters tall and 1 meter wide (6 feet tall and 3 feet wide). “It’s a large culvert…very heavy, very big. It’s going down a major artery of our road network, which makes it even more difficult (to install) with the volumes of traffic,” Fawthrop said.
The city supervisor acknowledges there has been traffic congestion in the area during the afternoon rush but he is hoping the traffic lights will help the situation.
Malyon Excavation is doing the construction, which is valued at approximately $500,000.