Morrisburg Roundabout revisions moving forward

By Phillip Blancher, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Morrisburg Roundabout revisions moving forward

MORRISBURG, Ontario – Work has not begun yet on the Morrisburg Roundabout and Street Scape project, but shovels are still expected in the ground before the summer begins.

The project, which will see a new roundabout constructed at the intersection of County Roads 2 and 31, along with improvements to CR2 in the business area of Morrisburg, was originally to be completed in 2020. The project was delayed by awaiting federal funding approval and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further delays occurred in January when the as-designed project was tendered and came back nearly $2 million over budget.

Since then the project has undergone a redesign to some of the features around the street scape portion of the project.

SDG Counties Transportation and Planning Director Ben deHaan said that the revisions are still underway but are expected to be close to a final product by April 23rd.

“As we’ve gone through the revisions, we have been working very closely with South Dundas,” deHaan said.

The design changes will not be going back to SDG Counties council for approval, rather to South Dundas council, which is a partner in the project.

“My understanding is that [South Dundas] council will be formally reviewing and blessing the ‘revised’ design before it goes out to tender,” deHaan explained.

He said he expected the project will be tendered in the first part of May.

SDG usually follows a three-week tender period, which in this case is expected to be awarded at the end of May.

County council will have to approve the final tender before shovels can go into the ground on the $4.2 million dollar project.

“Provided things go as expected, I fully anticipate that this work will be done in 2021,” deHaan said. “The pandemic continues to make it somewhat difficult to make accurate predictions.”

The province is currently under a six-week stay-at-home order and many construction projects have been shutdown. Municipal infrastructure falls under the essential construction category and is permitted to continue.

The project received 73 per cent of its funding via the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, a Federal-Provincial program.

SDG Counties and the Municipality of South Dundas will split the remaining 27 per cent of the infrastructure project cost.

This article was originally written for and appeared in The Morrisburg Leader.

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