A heads up to drivers in downtown Kamloops as there is more road paving work set to start today, Sept. 13.
Capital Projects Manager, Darren Crundwell, tells NL News the work will take place on Victoria, Lansdowne, and Battle streets between 7th and 13th Avenue.
“The public won’t see paving right away, we got a lot of prep work before we get there. You know, getting the signage and safety stuff in place, and then milling of pavement,” Crundwell said. “We won’t be paving for a number of weeks but it’s all going to get started and we’ll definitely get done before the snow flies.”
Construction is set to take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. between Monday and Saturday. Crundwell is asking people to avoid the area if they can, though he also says there will still be traffic maintained in both directions.
“I’m not saying two lanes of traffic in each direction, but we’ll maintain traffic in each direction,” he said. “And if the public can’t avoid the area when we are doing some of the more impactful work, the paving and whatnot, yeah, there will be some delays, but they won’t be too significant.”
That said, there won’t be on-street parking in the area while work is underway. There will also be a short-term full closure of 10th Avenue
Crundwell says the roughly $1-million project is very similar to one that happened on Columbia Street earlier this year.
“Except on Columbia, we did have the deep utility work. We were doing some water mains and sanitary though there, we don’t have any of that as part of this project,” he added. “It is pure kind of resurfacing and then fixing and repairing curb, gutter, and sidewalks. So it will be much quicker.”
Crews will also be replacing water, storm and sanitary castings, upgrading fire hydrants, and installing electrical ducting for future pedestrian upgrades.
“Throughout the construction period, vibratory compaction equipment may be in use; therefore, any fragile items should be packaged or protected from damage due to vibration,” Crundwell said. “There may also be noise disruption due to equipment on site.
“Transit will not be impacted, however users should expect delays. We will also maintain access to businesses at all times.”
For more on this project, go here.
Columbia Street construction work almost complete
As crews begin repaving work in downtown Kamloops, the City’s Capital Projects Manager says a similar $2.5 million project on Columbia Street in Sahali is basically complete, after three months of work.
Darren Crundwell tells NL News the final touches are taking place right now.
“We had some clean up and landscaping work. We do know we need paint. but we’re having issues. The whole world is having issues, so we really need to prioritize the paint and the paint we’re putting down because its tough to get it right now, but that project is 98 per cent complete,” he said.
“The paint we have to use nowadays, the low VOC and all that type of paint, it doesn’t last. We’ll be repainting in the spring anyway, but not that we are waiting for that. It is just purely a supply chain management issue.”
On the whole, he notes, the project went about as smoothly as it could have been.
“We had some very challenging tie ins with the utilities that were a bit of a surprise, at least for me, in that intersection of McGill and Columbia. But the night work and the paving couldn’t have gone any better really, I think,” he added. “And I hope the public is really happy. We’ve had a lot of complements.”
“Kudos to the whole project team and the contractor. The ride-ability and how that turned out, I think its fantastic. Like I said, we’ve had a lot of positive comments on that.”
Work on the Columbia Street project began on June 14. It was initially due to wrap up in about two months, according to the City’s estimates.
