Residents of Cornwall's west end can take heart - those car-scraping, suspension-wrecking, bicycle-shaking train tracks on Second Street are coming out.
Crews were hard at work Wednesday morning pulling the tracks from the pavement, adjacent to the city's water filtration plant.
For decades motorists have bemoaned the tracks that were cursed just about any time someone had the misfortune to drive over them.
With Domtar Paper's decision to close its paper mill years ago, and with no other takers looking for the nearby plot of land with which to perform large-scale industrial work, the need for the tracks has expired.
The city's 2012 list of road repair work includes the elimination of the tracks.
Also on the list to be removed or repaired are the tracks at Tollgate Road, Boundary Road and Seventh Street near the Benson Centre.
Stephen Wintle, the city's manager of infrastructure planning, told Seaway News in an earlier interview there's about $3.4 million worth of road repair projects on tap for 2012.
"This year we're really focusing a lot on our local streets," said Wintle, referring to the smaller avenues and lanes that make up the city. "We're going after some streets that we haven't looked at in years and years."
There are 33 road repaving jobs. New pavement will be going on Adolphus Street, Hoople Avenue, Marc Street, Martha Avenue, George Street, Charles Street, Sixth Street East, Fifteenth Street West, Gloucester Street, Third Street East, Inverness Avenue, Laflamme Avenue, Captain MacDonald Road, Maryborough Avenue, Jase Street, Concorde Avenue, McMartin Avenue, Mary Street, Pitt Street, McConnell Avenue, Cornwall Center Road and Fourth Street East and West.
There will also be concrete work and paving on Seventh Street East, Shirley Avenue, Osborne Avenue, Carleton Street, Gloucester Street, Grantwood Avenue, Gardner Avenue and Notre Dame Street.
The complete list of road work projects the city has planned for 2012 can be found online at http://www.cornwall.ca/en/municipalworks/2012PavingProjects.asp .
