As of Monday, the full stretch of Algonquin Blvd. that’s undergoing reconstruction this summer will be shut down.
The city’s manager of engineering, Scott Collin, says the pavement between Brunette Rd. and Balsam St. will be ground up and removed. Digging will begin once the railway overpass is gone.
“Removing the asphalt a piece at a time is time consuming,” Collin outlines, “because you have to load it in different trucks and haul it to different sites. So by getting rid of the asphalt all at once, it expedites the process for excavation.”
While that’s happening, work on bringing down the overpass at Spruce St. will continue.
“We had a bit of a delay with the Empire fire,” says Collin, “but other than that, they’re starting to jackhammer away at it this week. So depending on how much steel reinforcement’s in the concrete, we fully expect it to be removed the end of the month.”
Target date to wrap up all the work is the beginning of November.
Listen to the audio of our interview with Scott Collin, in which he explains why this mining community can’t simply use explosives to bring down the overpass.