Two major roadwork projects that have choked traffic in western downtown for months are delayed — one of them until next year.
Atwater Ave., between Sherbrooke St. W. and Docteur-Penfield Ave., has been narrowed to one northbound-only lane since February, when a municipal contractor began excavating to reconstruct the underground water and sewer mains.
The work won’t be completed on time this month, the city confirmed this week.
The completion date is now sometime after “the winter break,” in 2017, the city’s website, which updates progress on large roadwork projects across Montreal, indicates.
The contractor, C.M.S. Entrepreneurs Généraux Inc., was unable to make up delays, it says.
The delay was caused mainly by the presence of more rock than was anticipated, city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin said, referring to the excavation work.
The two-way street is on a slope of Mount Royal.
C.M.S. Entrepreneurs Généraux’s $6.8 million contract also calls for installing new street lighting and traffic lights on Atwater. Underground telecommunications cables and electrical lines are also being upgraded.
Once winter sets in, work will have to be halted, Sabourin said. The northbound east side of Atwater will be temporarily paved over for winter, he added, to allow motorists to get use of it and to allow snow-clearing crews to maintain it over the winter.
The city anticipates that paving and sidewalk construction on the southbound west side of Atwater will be done by the first winter freeze, Sabourin said.
Meanwhile, another project nearby, which has constricted traffic in both directions on Côte-des-Neiges Rd., between Cedar Ave. and The Boulevard, and on McDougall Rd., since April, was supposed to be finished in October. The work is now expected to be finished in December.
The delay is due to “unforeseen difficulties,” Sabourin said, notably the “quantity and hardness of rock” that had to be excavated.
The city website notes that the contractor, Sade Canada Inc., assigned an extra work team to the project, but is still behind schedule.
The company’s $11.3 million contract calls for reconstruction of sewer and water mains, redesigning the street and installing granite borders, new lighting and new traffic lights.
The anticipated cost of both roadwork projects, Sabourin said, hasn’t changed.
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