MANITOULIN—With the melting snow and all around un-thawing of Manitoulin’s highways and byways, it can only mean one thing—road construction season is soon upon us.
In Tehkummah, work is already underway on the Blue Jay Creek culvert replacements on Highway 542. Westbound traffic (to Mindemoya) has been detoured onto Highway 6, then on to Sideroad 10, then to Townline Road and Highway 542A.
It is anticipated that the Highway 542 closure and detours will be in place until early fall.
Belanger Construction was awarded this tender at a cost of approximately $2.8 million.
The second major Manitoulin project is the pavement rehabilitation of Highway 6 from just north of 10 Mile Point Road, northerly to 2.4 kilometres north of the swing bridge and onto Goat Island (a total of 19.5 kilometres).
This $8.5 million project (awarded to Pioneer Construction) should commence late April/early May and be complete fall of 2018. Work on the part of Highway 6 that falls within the town of Little Current and north of the swing bridge will not commence until after Labour Day weekend so as not to disrupt commercial businesses during the peak tourist season. Traffic disruption on Highway 6 will be minimal during single lane closures.
“All other work on Highway 6 within the project limits will be done by staging with single lane closures maintained by temporary traffic signals and/or flagging operations,” explained Andrew Healy, Ministry of Transportation environmental planner, northeast region. “Traffic in both directions will be restored at the end of each day’s work, excluding lane closures at temporary traffic signal locations.”
