Garages have been rendered inaccessible for nearly a month in an area of the Rosemont neighbourhood due to unfinished alley paving.
York Street resident Chad Howie had the alley behind his house torn up by city crews in mid-July and has been left in that state ever since.
“If you have a classic vehicle, you’re obviously not going to park it on the street,” Howie said.
The alley behind Howie’s house is one of over 60 alley construction projects the city had set for 2016.
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Norman Kyle, director of roadways and transportation for the city, said weather has been a factor in completing a number of summer projects.
“Our back alley construction we’re a bit behind because of the rain,” Kyle said.
The city employs separate crews to perform different duties. For alley construction, one crew is responsible for tearing up the existing alley’s pavement while another crew is responsible for installing the new pavement.
In some cases, the time between crews leaves a window for nasty weather.
“Part of that co-ordination, we’ve had lanes that are ready to pave, they get wet, we have to wait for them to dry out before we can go in and pave them,” Kyle explained.
But Howie — a former superintendent with an Alberta paving company — said paving should have been done before rain had an opportunity to hamper progress.
“This is a four or five day job. This isn’t a six week job or seven week job and this is what it’s going to turn out to be,” Howie said.
“If I were to run my business like this… I wouldn’t be in business.”
Howie said he was told by the city that the project would not be complete for another two to three weeks.
Kyle said that while the Department of Roadways and Transportation is dealing with more rain than in 2015, Kyle is optimistic about completing all their construction projects by fall.
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