Road construction season
Posted Apr 5, 2010 02:10:32 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some businesses in downtown Kitchener are bracing for another season of construction.
The second phase of the city’s $10 million King Street redevelopment project began today.
The new phase could slow sales for about half a dozen retailers along the stretch of King that is closed, between Water and Young streets.
The General Manager at Laurier Optical says that if they had known the road would be closed over the summer they would have delayed their opening.
The closure is part of a reconstruction project that will feature a public space for festivals and events in front of city hall.
Greg McTaggert, Manager of Infrastructure Asset Planning in the City of Kitchener’s Engineering Division, tells 570 News the biggest project will be the complete reconstruction of Park Street.
The $3.2 million dollar project runs from Stewart Street to the Waterloo border near Union Street, plus cross-streets, Wood and Gildner.
McTaggert says Park Street is in a declining state with a fair degree of traffic.
He adds, the city needs to get that street done before any work begins on the LRT rails installation on King Street.
McTaggert says the project should start near the end of April and should take several months, but only portions of the road will be closed at any given time.
McTaggert says one of the smallest projects this year is also one of the hardest: rebuilding a single block of Hall’s Lane, a narrow alley running between Charles and King.
He says it’s tricky because of the storm and sanitary sewers, water mains, and electrical duct work in Hall’s Lane, not to mention some of the buildings are very old.
All tolled, McTaggert says the City is looking at nineteen streets for total reconstruction, plus resurfacing 6.5 kilometres of other roads.
