High Street West Re-Opens To Relief Of Merchants
Major progress was made in Phase Five of the Cast Iron Water Main Replacement Program over the past week as High Street West re-opened in its entirety. Fairford Street East waits in the wings
Crews also started the preliminary work of setting up temporary water lines to residents of Third Avenue NW from Oxford Street West to MacDonald Street West as the project is set to move into the Avenues.
Other streets involved in this year’s program also made progress to varying degrees.
High Street West 0 - 200 Block
The big news of the week in the project is the re-opening to trafffic and the completion of work on the High Street West portion of project.
Various businesses, on High Street West, River Street West and Main Street North had expressed their frustration with MJ Independent they had with the City for not being notified about developments in the construction but chose not to go public about it. Merchants reported serious drops in sales they directly attribute to the street’s closure.
Merchants on Main Street reported major hits in their sales figures as the street was effectively closed from Fairford Street to River Street.
On another note following the construction the street lights are not working on the 100 block of High Street West. It is not known if the outage is related to the cast iron water main replacement project.
2nd Avenue NW Manitoba Street to Fairford Street
Work continued on this portion of project with the intersection of Fairford Street W and 2nd Avenue NW still closed to vehicle traffic.
The most notable work completion took place on the southern portion from Manitoba Street West to High Street West. On this stretch of roadway some paving has taken place and the roadway was open to local traffic only on Saturday.
Looking south on 2nd Ave NW from High Street W - MJ Independent photo
On the northern section, from High St W to Fairford Street West work also continued but there was open trench work on-going during the previous week.
On-going work continues at the intersection of Fairford St W and 2nd Avenue NW - MJ Independent photo
Fairford Street East 0 to 200 blocks
Work progressed on this section of roadway with the aesthetic upgrades to the sidewalk taking shape with the installation of paving stones on the south-east corner of the intersection of Main Street N and Fairford St E.
Additionally the roadway was paved and some of the painting work completed.
Line painting and re-erecting some signage is yet to be done.
The crosswarks were marked at the corner of Langdon Crescent and Fairford St E on Saturday morning - MJ Independent photo
Paving is completed on Fairford St E. This is Langdon Crescent looking south - MJ Independent photo
Stadacona Street East
Work continued in the residential portion of Phase Five along Stadacona Street East with residents on the 600 block reporting they were now no longer on temporary water but their services had been re-opened and all water use was now going through the new water mains.
Sidewalk repairs are set to be completed with some framing on the 600 block where cement had to be removed to install new service connections.
Stadacona Street E from the corner 6th Ave NE - MJ Independent photo
The area saw heavy trenching work over the past week as water main replacement continues.
The street is closed from 6th Avenue NE to 9th Avenue NE. This also includes the intersections at 7th Avenue NE and 8th Avenue NE.
Stadacona Street East - MJ Independent photo
Third Avenue NW - Oxford Street W to MacDonald Street W
This portion of this year’s program is being set up for work set to commence in the near future.