THUNDER BAY – The Boulevard Lake Dam rehabilitation project and the Edward Street Bridge Replacement project are both set to be completed on schedule.
The Boulevard Lake Dam rehabilitation project began in April of 2021 and had a planned budget of $8.5 million, which needed to be raised by $1.5 million when it was discovered that the Dam was in worse condition than expected.
“We’re still on schedule, looks likely to be completed by end of October, early November, right now they’re finishing pouring the spill ways, there’s about four left to pour and they expect to pour two more tomorrow,” said Mike Vogrig, City project engineer.
“They’re doing work on the old gatehouse pad that used to be there before, so that’s going to turn into a seating and viewing area for the dam, so there’s multiple pours in that, to get that complete, so they’re working on that now.”
Crews also need to install the new railings as well as ensure that the electrical work, which has been ongoing since the walkway was built, is completed.
“The walkway will open up when the entirety of the work is complete, the last bit of work that needs to get done is that gatehouse seating area, and getting those railings in place and finishing electrical, so, for the most part, the project will be like 99 per cent done before the walkway opens up,” Vogrig said.
Over on the south side of town, progress on the Edward Street Bridge is going well, the main beams of the bridge are put in place and the connections between the beams were put in place last week.
“Now they’re just moving forward with the remainder of the work, utilities have been on site to kind of, relocate all of their utilities and things are progressing as expected, so we expect to be done that project at the end of October."
There is still some concrete work that needs to be done for one sidewalk at the bridge, but Vogrig says as long as we have some decent daytime temperatures for that, there won't be any problems to worry about.
With the roundabout nearing completion many Thunder Bay drivers will be relieved to not have to go around using detours once the road is once again open.
