Despite challenges such as broken water mains and gas leaks in the St. Clair and Lite Street reconstruction project, the contractor expects work to be done according to schedule.
The $6 million project in the Village of Point Edward began in April.
An update was presented during a recent council meeting, where Deputy Mayor Greg Grimes cited two water main breaks and a broken gas main during the project's first phase, as referenced in an Operations Committee report.
"I'm just curious about how we're addressing workplace safety on that site from a village perspective," said Grimes. "Even though we've hired a contractor and a project manager, ultimately we're liable."
Operations Manager Mike Nesdoly said they recently met with the owner of McNally Excavating Ltd., and the project manager of Sarnia's MIG Engineering, which is overseeing the project.
Following that meeting, Nesdoly said he believes there will be increased communication. Chief Administrative Officer Jim Burns also said health and safety concerns can be raised with the village or the engineer who will take those comments to the contractor, thereby alleviating some of the village's liability.
"I believe after our meeting, that a number of issues came to light, and as [Burns] and I have mentioned to the contractor and to the project manager, there has to be open communication," Nesdoly told council. "There has to be constant emails of what's happening."
Grimes also referenced an error regarding pipe installation that delayed the reopening of Lite Street to Sitara Indian Cuisine.
"There was an error in calculation in terms of the slope that was made by the contractor," said Nesdoly. "It was found when they tried to do a connection further down the line. They admitted that was an error on their end."
Nesdoly said the contractor immediately rectified the issue and confirmed the error will not affect the infrastructure's integrity.
He also said the contractor believes they are about two weeks away from beginning the project's next phase.
For those who haven't seen the project site, Grimes referred to it as looking like "a war zone."
"Forty-one days is what they had in their schedule. Forty-one days, they're telling us they're going to have that street paved. The piece that's not covered in there is the work at the intersection of Helena and Louisa [streets]," said Burns. "Do I have 100 per cent confidence in them meeting that? Not really. But they're telling us, they can do it."
Pending unforeseen circumstances and weather conditions, May 31st was marked as the 30th working day of the project.
Nesdoly also clarified that the second and third phase of the project will not be as intense as the first with regards to the sewer systems.
"The idea is that they're hoping that if the first phase is out of time by a day or two, that they'll be able to make that up by the second phase and as they transition to the third phase," Nesdoly said.
Point Edward's largest construction project will see the complete rebuild of St. Clair Street between Front Street and Michigan Avenue, complete with waterline replacement, storm and sanitary sewer repairs, as well as road and sidewalk reconstruction.
The project is expected to be completed in September.