The city is projected the West Victoria Street project will be complete in May, barring any weather delays (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

CONSTRUCTION SEASON

West Victoria Street project to wrap up in May; construction on Tranquille to begin next month

Feb 27, 2020 | 4:53 PM

KAMLOOPS — With the weather warming, and the snow hopefully behind us, construction season is just around the corner. In fact, the work remaining on the $13 million West Victoria Street project has already resumed. Into its second season, only electrical and sidewalk work remains.

“The road work and everything is done, but now we’re pulling wire underground — telecommunications, hydro — switching over all the businesses from overhead to underground services,” said the City’s capital projects manager Darren Crundwell. “So we really have to make sure we’re coordinating that well because we’re impacting businesses.”

With Extreme Excavating taking full advantage of a mild winter, it was able to get ahead of the project. Crundwell says barring any more weather-related delays, West Victoria Street will be complete in May.

“We’re not too impacted by the weather now. Most of the work is underground, pulling cable. We’re out of the coldest parts of the weather, so we shouldn’t really have any weather delays,” noted Crundwell. “Nothing that we’re doing, even rain. We’re not sensitive like that.”

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The focus will then turn to another big construction project, this one on the North Shore. Tranquille Road from 12th Street to Mayfair Street at the Brock Shopping Centre will be redone at a cost of $ 13.5 million.

“It’s the second phase. Essentially we’re twinning the sanitary main, and then we’ll abandon the existing one that’s in place and we can switch the flow over to the new one. It’s just end of life. It’s 60 years in the ground. The concrete pipe is deteriorating,” said Crundwell.

The project will begin in March and wrap up in the fall. Jeremy Heighton from the North Shore Business Improvement Association believes there will be minimal impact to businesses.

“Yes, you do have some disruption going on along the Tranquille Corridor, basically from 12th Street to Crestline. But they did the first section from 8th to 12th a couple years ago, and disruption was actually minimal. They did a fast job of it,” said Heighton.

Road construction on Tranquille Road from 12th Street to Mayfield Street will begin in March (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

Heighton says the Brock Shopping Centre will see the biggest impact of all the construction.

“There are other ways around Brock Shop like Southill, off Parkcrest from Desmond, so there are other ways to get in,” noted Heighton. “What I think is critical is communicating with our residents and businesses ahead of time and having a plan in place. Just like West Vic, there were disruptions, but it actually wasn’t as bad as I think a lot of people thought it would be. I think residents are starting to get used to, ‘okay we’re going to find another way to get to where we need to go.'”

The North Shore BIA says the only uncertainty is about the impacts of heavy truck traffic on Tranquille, but it is working with the city to minimize disruptions on that stretch of road.