The city's commissioner of infrastructure services says 'the worst is over' when it comes to traffic problems due to construction on Howard Avenue near Devonshire Mall in Windsor.
David Simpson updated members of city council during Monday's meeting on the construction on Howard between the Roundhouse Centre and Devonshire Mall intersection and the entrance to Union Square Plaza near Sydney Avenue.
Simpson told the council that the three-day full closure of Howard on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week was "unfortunate but necessary" to install a 1.2-meter water feeder main.
He says ENWIN was doing a lot of fundamental work there that required a three-day closure.
"In some cases, there's no slam dunk to avoid traffic impacts; in that particular case, the impact was also felt on Dougall {Avenue}. A lot of flow went over to Dougall as well as Walker," he says.
In some cases, drivers were cutting through the Devonshire Mall parking lot to get around or through the detours.
Simpson says before work is even mobilized on site, they are always looking at the traffic control plans.
"Even when we've laid out the best traffic detour, the general public may choose not to follow it anyway, so we can't really control that driving behaviour," he told council.
The specific part of that work by ENWIN that caused the full closure is now complete, but the utility still needs to install a seven-kilometre feeder main.
Traffic is now down to one lane going north and south on Howard and Division through the construction zone.
Simpson says they anticipate ENWIN's work to be done by early to late June.
"At which point the city administration and engineering team would be taking over the remaining works to complete the intersection, the railway grade crossing, and so on," he says.
The city still needs to do work on the intersection of Howard Avenue and Division Road, which will result in lane restrictions between the Devonshire Mall intersection and the Union Square Plaza intersection.
There will also be a new railway grade crossing on Sydney Avenue, along with street streetlighting, sidewalk, and multi-use trail improvements.
The railway crossing on Howard Avenue between Division Road and South Cameron Boulevard was permanently closed as of April 14 for storm sewer upgrades along with road widening and reconstruction.
Those aspects of the project are not expected to be complete until the end of October.