So far so good at the ongoing asphalt and underground infrastructure project on The Kingsway, with the effort on track to being within its $11-million budget.
So described city engineering services director David Shelsted, who noted that crews should be leaving the site open to traffic within a few weeks for the seasonal shutdown of road work.
Next year’s roadwork will include laying surface asphalt between just west of The Kingsway’s intersection with Barrydowne Road, to Falconbridge Road, and installing a sidewalk, curb and bike lane on the south side.
“The paving should go quick,” Shelsted said, noting that surface-layer asphalt only took crews one day to complete this season, between Silver Hills Drive to where they left off near Barrydowne Road.
The curb, sidewalk and bike lanes will take additional time.
When Sudbury.com visited the site on Nov. 17, Shelsted described work being done at the Barrydowne/Kingsway intersection’s southeast corner, where a storm sewer and manhole were being installed.
A hoe ram was seen repeatedly slamming into rock under the surface to help make way for the underground infrastructure.
The busy intersection has proven a unique challenge, Shelsted pointed out to the city’s elected officials early last week when highlighting the nighttime construction measures they undertook.
The city is selective in what projects they undertake at night, as they typically carry a higher cost. With an estimated 45,000 vehicles crossing the intersection per day, it was deemed a worthwhile expense.
The driving public appears to have supported this sentiment. Earlier in the construction season, the city’s 911 call centre was “inundated with calls” about delays on The Kingsway, prompting police to issue notice that traffic jams do not constitute an emergency.
The intersection included underground infrastructure work which required crews to excavate the area during the early evening hours, undertake infrastructure work until approximately 4 a.m., and then backfill the hole and demobilize equipment by 6:30 a.m.
The following night would have a crew return to re-excavate the project, work on infrastructure, and then backfill the hole again; a process they repeated until complete.
Although these time-consuming extra steps are “very unusual,” Shelsted said they were necessary to keep the busy intersection open during the day.
Work on The Kingsway began in late 2022, ultimately stretching from Silver Hills Drive to Falconbridge Road, throughout which bike lanes and sidewalks are being installed on both sides of the road.
This project is not to be confused with the asphalt recycling project to the east, whose future has been cast into uncertainty after contractor Road Surface Recycling’s work was determined to be not up to snuff.
The effort from Silver Hills Drive to Falconbridge Road is a traditional asphalt project, and has been one of the more visible public infrastructure projects the city has undertaken this year’s $70-million construction season.
The other two big projects include the Bridge of Nations and the Lasalle Boulevard/Frood Road roundabout.
The roundabout is functionally complete, with minor work finalizing the project next season, while Shelsted said the Bridge of Nations’ east side is done, with the west side to be done next year.
“We’ve done a lot of the underground work that people maybe don’t recognize,” Shelsted said of the bridge, noting this should help shorten next year’s construction process.
Included in the Bridge of Nations work is a 2.33-km stretch of the Paris-Notre Dame Bikeway, which Shelsted said will be completed next year after reaching Kathleen Street.
Some other carryovers to next year include Larch Street, which still needs surface asphalt, Sparks Street (surface asphalt and paved boulevard), storm sewer rehabilitation in Capreol and a sanitary sewer project along Anderson Drive in Lively.
“Most of the jobs are closing up now for the winter season,” Shelsted said, adding that temporary asphalt is put down in some cases to keep the roads fully open during the winter.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
