One of the city's biggest construction projects this year is going to take over part of Riverside Dr. for the rest of the summer — and maybe into the new year.
City of Windsor Engineer Mark Winterton says the complete rebuild of Riverside Dr. between Lauzon Rd. and Riverdale Ave. begins this week and hopes to see it wrap by the end of the year.
However, Winterton says if the weather doesn't cooperate it's very possible the project could take until early 2019 to finish.
Amico Infrastructures has been awarded the first phase of what's known as the Riverside Vista project with a winning bid of $6.3-million.
Winterton says a detour will be set up that will take road users down to Wyandotte St. around the construction. "We understand that's a little bit out of the way, but traffic patterns might be a little bit congested at first but they usually will find their way," he says.
City crews are also working to making the traffic on Riverside Dr. and Wyandotte St. as manageable as possible.
"We will be looking at the signal timing and doing what we can to make provisions to allow for the additional traffic and the additional turn movements; you're going to have a significantly larger turn movement in several different directions," says Winterton.
Mayor Drew Dilkens calls the project important to the city and adds it's been on the books for 12 years.
The project includes new watermains, bike lanes, curbs and sidewalks.