Work on St. Clair Street in Point Edward is expected to ramp up again, beginning on Monday, August 26, after the Village of Point Edward terminated its agreement with McNally Excavating Ltd. in July.
Cope Construction will now move forward with phase one of the reconstruction project.
The plan initially involved four phases.
However, work this year did not move past the first phase, which involved the reconstruction of St. Clair Street and Lite Street from Front Street North to Bridge Street.
"There's some underground work that has to be done, some repairs... that's really all I can tell you at this point," said CAO Jim Burns while speaking with Sarnia News Today.
A previous notice issued by the village on August 12 said they were working with a contractor to complete the project and "still meet the timelines as best possible to the original design."
Burns said specific timelines are still being ironed out, but the priority is to have better access to impacted businesses as soon as possible.
"We're still negotiating with Cope to try and see how much work we can actually get done this year and at this point, we've authorized them to move forward with work on phase one," Burns said. "We are still in discussions to determine if we can go further."
Burns was unable to specify how much was awarded to Cope Construction to take on the project.
McNally Excavating was originally awarded the $6 million contract.
The Ministry of Labour initially visited the Point Edward project on June 12 and McNally was issued three orders due to construction site safety concerns.
Ministry officially visited the site eight times and said additional orders were later issued, for a total of 19. No further details could be provided as the ministry's investigation is ongoing.