City infrastructure project back on track

Phase two of the north core revitalization project in Thunder Bay is underway this week as construction crews work their way up Red River Road towards Court Street.
Apart from running into a few layout issues with some of the existing infrastructure, things are progressing well and back on schedule.
Brian Newman, senior project engineer with the City of Thunder Bay, said the problem involved gas lines.
“There were some big gas lines that we ended up having to replace that slowed us down for a couple of weeks and Enbridge came in and replaced them,” he said.
“We ran into some leaky lines with actual gas leaking out of some of their main (line) and that wasn’t a good thing. That slowed us down a bit.”
Enbridge crews replaced upwards of 50 feet of eight-inch gas line, and Newman hopes that is the end of that issue, but he is not “100-per cent certain” how it’s going to extend up the street.
“We’ve talked to (Enbridge) a couple of times about replacing the infrastructure and they said it’s OK,” he said. “As we’ve been uncovering more of it, they were sniffing for gas and they found more leaks than they thought.”
Leanne McNaughton, supervisor of external communications for Enbridge, said the company’s decision not to replace gas lines in the construction zone was communicated to the City of Thunder Bay in 2023.
“Enbridge consistently monitors the safety and reliability of our pipeline through annual surveys and other regular maintenance activities,” she said. “Enbridge Gas has no plans to proactively replace our pipeline infrastructure in this area at this time.”
Newman explained subcontractors such as gas companies need to be at the site well before the construction crews begin because they occupy the entire site until the problem is fixed and construction crews can safely continue.
For now, he said they are staying on track with the plan to have the infrastructure completed on time but there’s definitely going to be some residual work that spills over into next year.
“There are so many little details such as public art and streetscaping and there’s just not enough hours in the day to complete what we have to do this year,” he said. “The street will be open for vehicular traffic by late October or early November but the cosmetic stuff might get delayed a little.”
Phases two and three are being done simultaneously and involve the area between St. Paul Street to Court Street. During this phase of construction, Red River Road will be closed to vehicular traffic between Court Street and Cumberland Street. Pedestrian access to businesses on both sides of Red River Road will remain available.

Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal