PARRY SOUND – Construction is a fickle beast.
Surprises – generally not good ones – abound and crews never know what they’re going to find when they stick the blade of a shovel or machine in the ground.
Nor do they know how or if that revelation will throw an entire job off course, Triton Engineering Services Limited inspector Neil Kingston explained.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kingston said underground construction on Gibson and Mary Streets in downtown Parry Sound is complete.
“Construction is an unknown business, because every time we put a blade in the ground we find something that is unknown and this is the oldest part of Parry Sound, so there are things down there that only dead people know and we’re going to find out most of that as we go – those surprises,” said Kingston. “For the whole project, Gibson Street and Mary Street are almost compete underground-wise, but the roadwork still has to be done, but there’s some excavation to be done on both those streets. Downtown, we haven’t started yet. We started with a temporary water system to supply people with water while the new system is being installed. That should be done by the end of next week, supposedly. The main line, heavy excavation is tentatively scheduled for the week after next – very tentatively. Again it’s construction, weather can screw it up, unknown circumstances can screw it up, strikes can screw it up – all kinds of things can happen.”
Traffic will be affected
When work begins on James Street, Kingston warned that traffic would be affected.
“(The contractor) is probably going to come up the far side of the road (of James Street) about halfway, doing the sanitary and the water main on that side and then come over and do this side. Traffic won’t be on there, we may be able to maintain half of the road coming out of the parking lot on this end and then the other half on the other end, but there’s going to be a period of time where no traffic is going to drive on this road. Pedestrian traffic will be maintained as much as possible.”
The $4.8 million project began in November 2009 and is expected to be complete by early summer. Upper levels of government are paying for two thirds of the project.