A major construction project along the Expressway in Windsor is advancing, with future closures expected.
In order to complete the current phase of the E.C. Row Expressway and Banwell Road overpass interchange and corridor project, the city will need to completely close the Expressway to drivers in one direction at a time next month.
As part of the project, a watermain casing will need to be installed underneath the Expressway which will require an open cut to the road.
GIP Paving Inc., the contractor of the project, has also requested an exemption to the noise bylaw to allow for construction to continue in the overnight hours in order to speed up the completion of this phase, and to minimize disruption to traffic.
Earlier this week, city council approved the exemption which will allow this work to continue between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
This work will take place over two weekends next month, including a full closure of the westbound lanes from October 3 to 5, and a full closure of the eastbound lanes from October 17 to 19.
Stacey McGuire, the city's executive director of engineering, says the weekend closures will allow the work to be done right away.
"We're proposing doing it on the weekend, and having the noise bylaw exemption in place for after hours work will allow us to condense that work down within one weekend so that ideally we are not having these closures in place during the weekdays and during those really high-traffic times during the rush hour."
She says traffic would be impacted on two weekends.
"We would close down the eastbound direction one weekend, put that watermain casing in, and then reopen for the weekdays. And then a subsequent weekend we would do the other direction, so we'd close down the westbound and we would do the work in the westbound lane."
McGuire says the city understands that drivers are frustrated.
"We're doing our best, doing things like these overnight, weekend closures, these noise bylaw exemptions, to try to reduce the amount of time that we're affecting the commuting public. This work that we're starting right now, that's had the lane restrictions in place, it's absolutely necessary for us to set up to start this project."
October 24 to 26 will be the rain date weekend, if needed.
McGuire adds that the current work of the culvert and ditch re-alignments, removal of old traffic signals, shoulder widening along the Expressway, road widening on Banwell Road, line painting, and bridge abutment and center pier works has been going extremely well.
Lane restrictions are still in place on the Expressway east of Lauzon Parkway and west of Lesperance Road.
The nearly $100-million upgrades are needed to help accommodate traffic flow in that growing area.
The entire project is expected to be completed in 2027.