The city's busiest street may face some traffic delays for the next couple of months as the Installation of a new 400-millimeter watermain on Judge Avenue and Lakeshore Drive starts Tuesday, May 24.
The work will initially involve open trench excavation and will be followed by horizontal directional drilling.
Open excavation will begin at Veterans Park and will continue in stages to Leask Avenue. Access to sports fields and washroom facilities at Veterans Park will be maintained.
Horizontal directional drilling, which will begin at a later date, will be conducted beneath the Judge Avenue, Lakeshore Drive and Memorial Drive area to allow that intersection to remain open to traffic.
See: Large watermain installation will go under — not through — busy intersection
Additional notices will be issued for future road closures, which will be necessary throughout the project.
Council recently unanimously awarded a nearly $150,000 contract to Sabi Thorne Holdings Ltd., opting for the horizontal directional drilling approach instead of the more conventional style of open trench watermain installation. The Stouffville, Ont., based company was the only bidder on the project.
According to the associated staff report for the project, a potential "single point failure in the distribution system," has been identified. There is only one 16-inch large diameter watermain that delivers drinking water to the West Ferris area and, over the past five years, that watermain has experienced numerous breaks.
The City of North Bay Infrastructure and Operations team's goal has been to install this second 16-inch large diameter watermain to provide drinking water to the West Ferris area, thereby greatly reducing the risk to the City’s drinking water distribution system.
The work is expected take approximately 10 weeks to complete. Once installed, the new watermain will alleviate ongoing water pressure issues and serve as a second large-diameter feed to deliver drinking water to the West Ferris area.
With files from Stu Campaigne.
