By Khang Nguyen

8th St. E. road construction underway again

Oct 24, 2015 | 8:15 AM

It’s been a busy construction season in Prince Albert and some residents have been weathering the worst of it since spring.

Residents who live in the 300 block of 8th St E. have been without a front road for months now.

According to residents, construction signs started popping up in spring and work began on their block shortly after.

However, after the road was removed, the work stopped. Over the summer and into fall, residents saw very little activity on the road, although construction on other blocks on 8th St E. began and finished in that time.

Up until earlier this week, residents were left in the dark.

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However, a letter sent out by the city on Oct. 21 have given them a sliver of hope that they will get their road back sooner rather than later.

The letter cleared up some answers, but Mireille Chester said it hasn’t answered all of her questions.

“What happened? Explain to us what happened? What went wrong? We would really like to know why we haven’t had a road all summer,” she said. “It’s not just not very nice. We pay our taxes. We do what we’re supposed to so why can’t they?”

The letter apologizes to the residents for the condition of their street and states the city’s resources were “stretched too thin” under projects like the ‘Big Dig’.

The letter also states the city intends to have the road ‘useable’ by winter with any deficiencies and landscaping to be completed in the spring of 2016.

However, city manager Jim Toye said that deadline is a bit safe.

“Our hope is still to have it done by this year,” Toye said, adding the timeframe in the letter is a worst case scenario. “We don’t want to set us up for failure … all of this is weather dependent.”

Toye said concrete work still needs to be done before they put the asphalt down on the road. Additional work on the sidewalks is needed as well.

 “The number one priority for us is to get the ‘Big Dig’ done. That has obviously been a slow process. We see some light at the end of the tunnel and when that is done, then we will be at our second priority which is 8th St. E,” said Toye.

Penny Darling said the update has given her some hope, but she wishes it came sooner.

“You do understand that it’s not going to be pleasant for anybody to live though, but you still like to see a project going on in a timely fashion,” Darling said. “If there are delays, you would like that to be communicated with you.

“Ripping up an entire neighourhood and then walking away from it for a month. You’re not sure what’s going on even though you’ve gotten a little assurance that it will be to some degree repaired, you still don’t really know what’s going on.”

Preliminary work has since started up again on the block and will be at full force once construction on 2nd Ave. W. concludes.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @khangvnguyen