Summer detour season already in full swing, township residents can expect more of the same over the next few years whether travelling on local or regional roads.
In Woolwich, there’s a long list of major road projects on tap, says Jared Puppe, the township’s director of infrastructure services.
“The region is going to start looking at doing Arthur Street at some point in 2024-2025. And their Arthur Street project limits are very big – they’re from South Street all the way up to Kenning Place. So that’s a fair [size] project that’s likely to be broken up into multiple years,” said Puppe.
This year marks the first phase of work on Church Street, with construction slated until December and then again from April to December of 2023. This work includes full reconstruction of the pavement and road, replacement of sewers and watermains, widening of the sidewalk and installation of new light standards.
The $3.18-million project – the township’s share is $330,300 – will also add a left turn lane on Church Street East at the intersection with Arthur Street.
Other projects led by the region include Duke Street from Church to First street and Barnswallow Drive from First to Church streets, both in Elmira.
While the township will not be heavily involved in those projects it’s currently undertaking a major project on Industrial Drive in Elmira.
“The nice thing about that project is that we’re replacing some underground deficiencies and we’re going to be providing some pedestrian facilities that didn’t exist there. So I think that’s a big enhancement, as well, because that’s a heavily walked roadway with all the [students from the] schools … and the various retail stores there,” said Puppe.
The full project includes complete replacement of the watermain, storm and sanitary sewers, the installation of a sidewalk (on the east side of the road), a concrete boulevard, curb/gutter, road base, pavement and layby parking south of Oriole Parkway. The cost of project is estimated at $3 to $3.5 million.
Other township-led projects planned for the future include George Street, High Street and Charles Street reconstruction.
While there are major ongoing road work projects in Woolwich this year, the Township of Wellesley is looking at big projects further down the road.
“We actually have a fairly light year this year because we have a couple of larger projects coming up in the next two years, major road reconstructions. So, this year is just more or less finishing the top coat of paving on a couple of sections of road outside of Linwood that we did the base on last year,” said director of public works Chris Cook.
While there are few projects that the region is working on within Wellesley, including Herrgott Road, Kressler Road and Line 86, these do not involve the township.
This light schedule has led to fewer road closures, Cook said.
“Other than the regular maintenance activities that our staff would undertake like doing road crossings for new culverts and things like that. Those will pop up here and there. But again, that’s like one to two days max that the road would be closed. And those we send out daily so we do send those out to emergency services and we put it on our website and on our social media as well, informing people of those,” he explained.
For future projects Wellesley is looking at a full reconstruction of Queen’s Bush Road, including new sidewalks and curbs for 2023. In 2024, it’s Park Street in St. Clements along with sections of Peter Street and Church Street.
While inflation has meant higher costs for projects, it hasn’t changed any future plans, Cook said.
“We haven’t had to do a whole lot of pushing things back. Park Street was supposed to be this year. We put it off because of the logistics and complexity of the project, so that one wasn’t necessarily due to cost. From a cost perspective, we were able to plan fairly accurately and we haven’t really had to push things off because of that,” he added.
