Residents along a Deer Ridge street say the road’s complete closure for almost four weeks will be a pain, but they’re willing to put up with it for future gains.
The city began a major reconstruction project on Dalhousie Street Friday, completely closing the majority of the road, from Duncan Court to Dorchester Drive, until Aug. 30 as crews deal with poor base soil conditions and resurfacing the road.
Resident Ken Winslow, who lives about halfway up the street, said it would be a big hassle for him and his wife, but he was more concerned about some of his elderly and less mobile neighbours.
“It’s a huge inconvenience,” he said. “I don’t know how some of these people are going to cope.”
Meanwhile, other residents aren’t as worried.
“You’ve got to have a road. If they don’t fix it, you won’t have a road,” said Foster Elder, who lives about four houses down from the intersection of Dalhousie Street and Dorchester Drive.
“For me, it’s not going to be a real big problem,” he said.
The project was originally expected to be a simple resurfacing, but once crews got started they found bigger problems, said Tracy Allen, capital projects manager for the city.
“Whether it was the high volume of rain this year, the high water table in the Deer Ridge area to begin with, when we milled the Dufferin and Dalhousie roads down … the remaining asphalt on the road just failed, just from traffic,” she said.
“There was no physical way we could get in and do an overlay. If we didn’t come in and do a complete reconstruction on these roads, by spring next year, they would be impassable.”
The city typically designs a reconstruction project a year before work starts, communicating with residents through open houses, but this case called for some drastic action, Allen said.
“This is not how we like to do business,” she said.
The biggest inconvenience for residents is the fact that they will have to park their cars on nearby streets and walk to their homes, which could be troublesome if unloading large loads of groceries or other goods.
Access to Delisle Court, a cul-de-sac that branches off Dalhousie Street, will also be cut off for the entire three-week period, even though no work will be done on that road.
Most residents have been preparing for the closure, loading up on big grocery items and finding alternate parking spots, since they received notice from the city about a month ago.
“We counted the houses, and there’s at least two cars per house, so we figured there’s got to be at least 100 vehicles,” Winslow said. “When I get home from work at night, I’ve got to find a spot somewhere.”
“I have a really good plan, but I’m not letting it out of the bag,” Elder added with a laugh.
Some residents were also worried about their cars being vandalized while parked blocks away from their homes.
“Our cars are in the garage every night and most people [do the same] around here. And we have some fairly nice vehicles,” Winslow said. “We took everything out. But the vandals don’t know that. They could smash a window and see what’s in there.”
Allen said the city has spoken with local RCMP and municipal enforcement officers about stepping up patrols in the area while also being lenient on parking restrictions.
During the construction, mail and solid waste services will not be disrupted. Allen said mail carriers will still have full access to sidewalks and the contractor will help with the garbage pickup.
“What residents will do is put out their bins as normal and then the contractor wheels them out to a designated pickup site,” she said. “They get picked up then they wheel them back to the residents.”
She added that the city’s engineering department will have daily contact with emergency services personnel to keep them apprised of progress on the street.
The 25-day closure is just the first stage of road reconstruction in the area. Stage two is scheduled to take place from 87 Dufferin St. to 17 Dufferin St. between Aug. 31 and Sept. 27, and stage three is slated to go from Duncan Court to 17 Dufferin St. between Sept. 28 and Oct. 18.
