THUNDER BAY – Ministry of Transportation officials insist upcoming bridge repairs along Highway 61 between the Thunder Bay International Airport and Broadway Avenue will be completed during this construction season.
The construction work, which will rehabilitate the roadway spans over the Canadian Pacific tracks and Rosslyn Road as well as the Canadian National rail bridges that run over the highway, is expected to begin in June, ministry spokeswoman Annemarie Piscopo confirmed in an email.
The ministry has approved a plan that would keep two lanes of traffic open with a 50 kilometre per hour speed limit during the day, with the highway closed at night between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. to facilitate the work.
Thunder Bay city council, which had approved using Broadway and Neebing avenues as a signed detour during the nighttime construction, had been told the ministry was expecting a five to six month timeline for completion. Depending on the start date, that could push the project’s end to late November or into December.
Piscopo said the project was put out for tender in late February and will close on April 10. The ministry expects to award the contract in mid-May, she added.
“The contract was advertised early in the year which should provide the successful contractor with a sufficient amount of time to complete the work by fall 2018,” Piscopo said. “There are provisions within the contract to help ensure the contract is completed by the completion date. The ministry has contractual tools they can use to enforce the contract requirements.”
A previous rehabilitation project on Highway 61 at the Neebing River Bridge – just north of the Arthur Street intersection – was not completed during the 2016 construction season as anticipated and the work was not completed until last summer.
