While still in its early stages, the 10th Street Bridge Replacement Project is a bit behind according to Owen Sound's Director of Public Works and Engineering Dennis Kefalas.
Kefalas provided a progress update to Owen Sound city councillors at Monday's meeting. Despite being behind where they expected to be nearly three months into the major infrastructure project, Kefalas says he's spoken to the project contractor and there are no concerns about the long-term timeline of having the new bridge opened to traffic by December 2020.
The $8.68-million project must be complete by March 2021 for the city to maintain eligibility for a $3-million Connecting Links grant from the province.
“Right now, based on the newly issued schedule we're still going to be able to meet our deadline of being able to have substantial completion and open to traffic by Christmas 2020,” Kefalas says.
As for what's been completed thus far, Kefalas says the demotion of the main bridge structure and the Gavaris building at 10th Street and 1st Avenue East are done.
“You can actually go down the river and not have to worry about a bridge overhead,” Kefalas explains.
Early phase watermain work on 10th Street has been completed as well — although more will still need to be done in later stages of the project, Kefalas notes.
Kefalas says there have been some minor obstacles encountered during the demolition phase, but for the most part the project is going smoothly.
“Other than we're still looking for a (portable toilet) that disappeared off the site and we figure it's in the water somewhere,” Kefalas chuckles.
Looking ahead at the next couple of months on the project, Kefalas says sheet piling will start this week and then demolition of the old bridge abutments can be completed. Following that, work on the new bridge foundation will start.
Construction of the new bridge structure will begin sometime next summer, Kefalas notes, after the foundation is complete and set.