Some major roads projects are gearing up in Greater Sudbury, including the long-awaited start of the Maley Drive extension.
Big projects along with Maley include about $7 million of road and drainage work on Lorne Street, from Martindale to Gutcher, and $7 million on MR35, for culvert and reconstruction work.
"Lorne Street should be going out to tender in the next couple of weeks,” said Tony Cecutti, the city's GM of infrastructure. “It is a multi-year contract, so we won't be entirely finished this year. There will be some work this year and next year. And that's just phase 1."
City council passed a resolution this spring to have staff apply for infrastructure funds from senior levels of government to rebuild more of Lorne.
"We're putting together a package to see if the senior levels of government are interested in participating with us in a larger scope project," Cecutti said.
That application will include a request for funding to complete the four-laning of MR35, as well. The tender for MR35 will go out within a few weeks, he said.
"(The tenders for) MR35 will probably be more like the middle of August."
The news so far is good for the phase 1 of the Maley Drive extension, worth about $81 million.
"Our first tender closed a couple of weeks ago, and we're very encouraged that the tender came in below the most recent estimates, which is very encouraging," Cecutti said.
Bigger projects usually attract lower tender prices, he said, but the bids so far are even lower than anticipated.
"We saw lot of interest in the project, lots of companies took out plans,” Cecutti said. “It's a big job, so there's probably some partnerships in there. The company with the lowest tender -- Bot Construction -- is very familiar with this kind of work. They've done a fair amount of the four-laning on Highway 69."
The first contract is to realign Notre Dame Avenue north of Lasalle Boulevard, and the construction of the passover for Maley Drive that goes over Notre Dame.
"That's going to be starting shortly," he said. "And we'll be tendering shortly the next contract after that."
About $7 million in work on Second Avenue, which has been delayed for the last few years because of requests from the public for a more intensive environmental review, could still begin this year. Cecutti said it could still happen if the city gets approval from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.
"We had some communication with them a few weeks ago,” he said. “They were looking for confirmation through Conservation Sudbury as to the status of certain drainage projects. It was a good conversation and we're hoping that we'll hear something back from the MOE fairly soon.
"As long as we hear in the next week or so, there's a good chance that we'll be able to tender, assuming the response is positive. If it takes much longer than that, if we hear back from them positively, but it's the end of August, then it's not likely that we will tender something this year. We'll probably defer it to next year."
In an email Wednesday, ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler said no decision has been made yet on the project.
“I can confirm for you that the ministry is continuing to review the Part II Order requests,” Wheeler said in the email.
Cecutti said he's optimistic.
"We were encouraged by the conversations we've had and our ability to respond to the public's concerns,” he said. “But we'll wait and see what the minister decides."
