Roadwork planned for Balmoral St. in Thunder Bay in 2017 on hold
Matt Prokopchuk | CBC News | Posted: October 13, 2016 11:00 AM | Last Updated: October 13, 2016
City officials say federal infrastructure funding in 2017 geared to other projects
A three year project to reconstruct a large section of Balmoral Street in Thunder Bay, Ont. will be put on hold after work on phase one wraps up this year, according to city officials.
Work on the busy and battered thoroughfare north of Hewitson Street isn't included in engineering's proposed 2017 budget, the city's director of engineering and operations, Kayla Dixon, confirmed on Wednesday.
The main reason: federal dollars announced for next year are more geared to things like wastewater, stormwater and transit infrastructure, not roads, Dixon said.
"The federal funding that's been made available isn't for roadwork," she said. "So we are looking into our 2017 budget to make the most of the funding that's available and try and match where we have funding available."
The city announced the ambitious plan to revamp the busy street in December, 2015, including reconstructing the deteriorating surface, in addition to filling in ditches and adding curbs, gutters, sidewalks and multi-purpose trails.
The section of Balmoral between the McIntyre River bridge and Hewitson Street has been under construction for several months. Dixon said that will be completed in November, with some work on the boulevards wrapping up in the spring of 2017.
With Ottawa more inclined to spend infrastructure money on other types of projects, Dixon said it made sense to align the city's major capital work elsewhere.
"So, of course that's up for council direction going through the budget deliberation but at this point, we are trying to make maximum use of the funding that's available," she added.
The project has already seen its scope change once, as council voted back in the spring to stop work this year at Hewitson Street, instead of further north, citing cost.
Engineering expects to continue the project in 2018 and 2019, Dixon said.