The Big Dig is underway in Wiarton and some detours are up today.
Town of South Bruce Peninsula Director of Public Works Lara Widdifield says starting today (April 19th), Berford Street will be closed to vehicle traffic from south of William Street to south of George Street, as well as Division Street from Berford Street to Bayview Drive will remain closed.
During these road closures, soutbound traffic will be rerouted to Jenny Street to Gould Street to Frank Street, while northbound traffic will take the Frank Street to Claude Street to William Street route.
The Big Dig newsletter says while the roads are closed, workers will be installing new watermains, sanitary and storm sewers from William Street to just south of of the George Street intersection, while connecting properties to the new mains.
Workers will also complete the installation of the oil-grit separator on Division Street, install new traffic lights on Berford Street and George Street, pave new roads on Berford Street from south of George Street to north of Division Street , and the areas they are working on the cross-streets, while also restoring sidewalks, and planting some flowers and installing benches.
Widdifield says their goal is to get in and get everything done as soon as possible.
With their original goal to be done being July, she suspects it may take longer with the new expected date for completion set for later in the summer noting, “we are hoping to get everything in and proceeding along smoothly and get out of there as quickly as possible.”
The project is funded through three different external grant programs:
-The Ministry of Transportation’s Connecting Link Grant Program – $3,000,000
-Federal Gas Tax funding – $1,355,300
-Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, a Ontario Builds grant – $435,000
The Big Dig project started last June and was aiming to finish by November of 2020.
In a previous newsletter, construction was underway but had to be paused due to soil samples showing significant petroleum product contamination, which required additional soil handling, specialized disposal and treatment of the groundwater from the contaminated zones, taking three weeks to complete.
Widdifield acknowledged this setback and says this new phase will go a little more smoothly and they are not expecting to come in contact with any further soil contamination.