While it would be easy to assume that unseasonably warm weather would be good for construction projects, in the case of the Main Street South redevelopment, it is having the opposite effect.
In fact, warm daytime temperatures have caused crews to change gears and work through the night instead, said Dauphin’s director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne.
“Because of the soft conditions during the day, it just makes more of a mess than it would be if the weather was normal. It slows production down to almost a halt with trucks being stuck and material being stuck and everything else,” VanAlstyne said. “So by working through the night they have colder weather and they can travel on that semi frozen ground.”
Progress on the Main Street South project has been consistent, he added, with the contractor Russell Redi-Mix, completing approximately 65 per cent of the City’s portion of the project to this point.
Work on the western retention pond is all but complete with just some final grading work to do. That work will have to wait for drier conditions, VanAlstyne said. The eastern retention pond is about 80 per cent complete and installation of storm sewers is wrapping up, while Manitoba Hydro and its contractor are working to complete the relocation of gas lines on the west side of the roadway.
VanAlstyne expects the City’s portion of the project to be completed soon.
“I would imagine we will be done most of it by the end of the month,” he said. “This week will be critical with the colder weather.”
At that point service roads will be completed and at which time the focus will shift to reconstructing the main roadway.
“There’s a traffic management plan in place. So once the service roads are constructed the main roadway will be closed to traffic and traffic will be diverted onto the new roadways,” Alstyne said. “The city’s involvement will definitely be a lot less at that point.”
He added the project continues to be on schedule with a completion set for later this summer.
“They’re really pushing to be done by the end of August. Which is the original project completion date,” he said, adding the contractor has been diligent in making sure work progresses. “We’ve had some challenging snowstorms that have put in a couple of hiccups, but nothing that’s been crazy. And really the warm weather has probably been the biggest challenge so far, but they’ve done a good job of working and doing what they can when they can.”
On top of the drainage work and Main Street reconstruction, there will be intersection improvements at Dauphin Marketplace Mall and at Riverside Road.
Plans call for the entrance to the mall parking lot to be moved to the south and the intersection to be controlled by traffic signals.
All direct access to businesses along the stretch of road will be blocked with the entrance coming off the new service roads.
The plan also calls for expansion of the street to four lanes all the way to Triangle Road and the installation of a raised centre median starting just south of Whitmore Avenue.
As an added bonus, milling and overlay work will take place on Main Street from Whitmore Avenue to Fourth Avenue South.
“I can’t predict their the timeline, but I could guess that they may do that sooner rather than later,” VanAlstyne said. “Because they want to make sure their asphalt plant is up and running and working properly so I could see them doing that earlier on.”
