With reconstruction of the St. David Street bridge here in 2018, transport truck drivers heading through the area will be finding there is no easy bypass around the bridge.
Centre Wellington councillors got the scoop from Denis Hollands of Triton Engineering on bypass routes for both residential and transport truck traffic.
He said “we are looking at nine months from the time the contractor would start the project to completion.
“We have to detour heavy trucks to bypass Fergus via Wellington County Road 7 starting near Guelph (Elora Road) up to Alma, then back across (Wellington Rd. 17) to Highway 6.”
That bypass route would be for north and southbound traffic.
“We cannot legally detour them onto Scotland Street (Gartshore Street) because of the load restrictions on the bridge over the Grand River,” said Hollands.
He added there is insufficient space to accommodate transport truck traffic along the Tower Street bridge or nearby streets – “Therefore it will be an external bypass for heavy trucks,” he said.
He said there will be a backup detour along the Second Line for “any truck missing the detour coming up Highway 6.”
A further backup would be along Wellington Road 51 just north of the Victoria Road intersection for truck traffic coming up Victoria Road to Highway 6, Hollands said. Traffic would also be detoured to Wellington Road 7.
Hollands said the local detour for Highway 6 traffic will be via Belsyde Avenue, Scotland/Gartshore Street and Gordon Street – for north and southbound traffic.
“In all these cases, we have to submit these detour routes to the Ministry of Transportation, because we are detouring highway traffic for nine months,” he explained.
Director of infrastructure Colin Baker said the township will be working with the MTO to ensure there is not only a lot of signs, but advance notice to regular truck traffic.
“From our perspective we want to provide as much notice as possible so the travelling public has a chance to make alternate arrangements,” said Baker.
He added there will also be extensive signage within Fergus to ensure trucks are going where they should.
Hollands added all industries in the northeast industrial park in Fergus will be notified well in advance.
He said two of those industries noted they do not use the Highway 6 bridge in Fergus – instead they send heavy loads via the bridge in Belwood and lighter loads via the Gartshore/Scotland Street bridge.
Councillor Stephen Kitras asked if any truck traffic would be rerouted through Belwood. Hollands said it remains a possible option. He explained one of the issues is that when the bridge project begins, it is the start of half-load season on some of the township bridges.
This includes the Second Line bridge east of Gartshore Street.
“We can’t detour traffic to this bridge until the half-load season is over (near the beginning of May),” Hollands said.
Until then weight restrictions would apply.
