WELLINGTON COUNTY – Road construction and maintenance projects are expected to continue around the county this spring and summer, though some schedules are being altered in response to COVID-19 restrictions.
County engineer Don Kudo updated Wellington County council on road department activity during a special teleconference county council meeting on March 31.
Kudo said the Badley Bridge project in downtown Elora is on schedule despite the situation.
“The contractor has a COVID-19 plan in place with measures to assess and assist their staff,” said Kudo.
“They’ve advised that production may be affected by these measures and at this time the contractor is on schedule for the bridge to be completed and open in November 2020 as planned.”
Kudo said construction on the Eramosa River Bridge on Wellington Road 124 will resume in May for completion of paving and grading work.
The second stage of construction on Wellington Road 46 in Aberbfoyle has not yet begun and Kudo said the contractor “has advised they are currently ceasing all construction project work until at least April 6.”
Alternative plans may involve deferring construction of the roundabout at Wellington Roads 46 and 34 until 2021. The original schedule called for completion by October and final asphalt to be applied in 2021.
Application of surface asphalt on the Salem Bridge is tentatively set to start in May, with the project expected to take four weeks.
A two-month project to reconstruct 300 metres on Wellington Road 50 in Rockwood is set to begin in late April.
Tenders are out and expected to be awarded shortly for paving of a 5km stretch of Wellington Road 14 in Arthur and 9km of paving and bridge rehabilitation work on Wellington Road 86 at Dorking.
Kudo said tenders are also out on various paving contracts for a total of 10,000 square metres of road rehabilitation work around the county.
Solid waste
Kudo also updated council on Solid Waste Services.
With public access to waste facilities closed due to COVID-19 response measures, Kudo said “most of the inquiries lately have been about how to use the curbside collection service.”
He pointed out the website has been updated and the county has used mobile signs, media releases, social media posts and notices in the Wellington Advertiser to get information to the public.
“We’ve received positive resident comments about how nice it is to have ‘normal services’ when they see a collections vehicle come by,” Kudo noted.
Additional user-pay bags have been ordered and staff is increasing deliveries to roughly 60 locations around the county that sell the bags, which are mandatory for curbside collection.
The Riverstown landfill site remains open and is accepting commercial and industrial waste disposal along with the residential waste being collected at curbsides, Kudo noted.
Kudo pointed out that planned enhancements to curbside collection services are expected to proceed this spring.
“While we still navigate the COVID situation, we’re still working toward the 2020 launch of our new collections contract with new improved collection services, including organics and we continue to work on our landfill space throughout 2020,” he stated.
