Hot, humid weather is slowing down construction on the Regent Street underpass in Fredericton, forcing crews to work evenings to make their target completion date.
Department of Transportation resident engineer Josh Fox says they are a week behind what the original job schedule projected.
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Fox says they’ve brought in additional staff, extended their work days and worked weekends and holidays to try to make up time. He says working evenings is one of the last options available to keep the project on track for August 31 completion.
“Some summers are better than other ones and it depends on the nature of the work,” Fox said.
” Ya know, if you get a grading job most guys are in heavy equipment and they have air conditioners in there and they don’t have those kinds of slow downs, but bridge work where everybody’s exposed, these things happen.”
Innovative Civil Constructors Inc. safety representative Jean Driscoll tells Global News that working evenings will help reduce the number of hours of crews working in the hot sun, and will allow them to catch up on the work.
“I guess it’s frustrating a little bit, but I mean you can only work with mother nature, you can’t change things. I mean I’d rather see the sun than the rain but you’ve got to take it as it comes,” Driscoll said.
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Driscoll says they’re following provincial health regulations and ensuring staff drink lots of water and take breaks.
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