Upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure on Front Road have been held up for months, causing frustration and concern for area residents as well as motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
On Monday evening, city staff held an information session to update the public about the delays and provide more insight into when the work will resume and be finished.
You could call it the Front Road version of the ‘Big Dig,’ the lengthy construction process to rebuild infrastructure along lower Princess Street. However, unlike that work, the mainly sewer and water main project on Front Road has ground to a halt for months.
At the public meeting Monday night, residents learned that the work stoppage was a result of flooding of a trench dug below the water table.
“We anticipated water would come into the hole and it would be pumped out. Unfortunately, significantly more water is coming into the hole and they’re not able to pump it out fast enough to complete the work,” Utilities Kingston president and CEO David Fell said.
Adding to the issue are negotiations between the utility provider and the contractor EBC Inc., which Coun. Wayne Hill calls a disagreement between parties.
“Something happened along the way that led to one party not being able to fulfill their terms of the contract so as always that involves a lot of legal manoeuvring or potential manoeuvring and outcomes that we can’t predict now and are under negotiations,” Hill said
That’s leaving residents a little more enlightened, but still frustrated.
“I find that the whole lack of progress on this project, the fact that it ground to a standstill, nothing happening — it’s just unconscionable and there needs to be some accountability around the fact that all of this happened,” Harold Kleywegt said.
“Cars will still just zoom past you in a very small space, there are potholes, there’s debris, there’s a concrete barrier to your right and a car to your left, there’s not much place for you to go,” cyclist Carla Teixeira said.
Some of the safety and traffic concerns will be mitigated through the winter with the road being restored.
“We’re going to hire contractors to fill in the holes and repair that and restore it to four lanes,” Fell said.
That work is expected to be completed by mid- to late November.
As for the overall impacts on the project’s budget and timelines, that still isn’t known. Utilities Kingston’s president and CEO has committed to holding another public meeting in the spring to keep area residents informed of the project’s progress and timelines.
Comments