After almost 16 months of work, construction on River Street could end soon | CBC News

Batool Fatima has been living on River Street in Thunder Bay, Ont. for a year. When she first moved into her apartment, she said she heard the street’s road work would be complete by February 2023.

Six months later, River Street is still closed and under construction.

For Fatima, a typical day begins with the sound of rocks being unloaded from trucks at 7 a.m. or earlier, followed by a beeping sound from construction machines.

“I don’t need an alarm. I can wake up anytime when they start this thing,” she said.

These nuisances aren’t unique to just Fatima. River Street residents have experienced issues as a result of the road’s construction, such as sewage backup and their homes shaking from the road work.

River Street has been closed since May 2022 as a result of a sinkhole that developed above the culvert overtop of McVicar Creek near Farrand Street. Construction crews have been working on repairing the road but have kept pushing back the reopen date. In total, River Street has been closed for nearly 16 months.

Now, some River Street residents like Fatima say they are frustrated with the continued road work and the inconveniences that go with it.

“What really is concerning is that the timeline that they gave … is not fulfilled and the deadlines are extended,” said Fatima. “And then you question how long it will take for this construction to get completed.”

Crew ‘maybe underestimated’ time needed to complete project

Mike Vogrig, the lead engineer of the River Street construction, said all city construction is “definitely” an inconvenience, but said it’s something that must be taken care of. He said he appreciates River Street residents’ patience while the construction crew works to finish the bridge.

While the construction has prolonged and River Street’s opening day has been pushed back multiple times, Vogrig said this is one of the largest river crossings he’s ever done since he’s worked with the city.

“I think maybe what some people might think [is], ‘Oh, you’re just replacing a culvert.’ Well, this is a structural multiplay culvert. And it’s quite a massive, massive undertaking,” he said.

Vogrig said when the sinkhole first appeared and he and his team got approvals from the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to block off a portion of the road’s culvert, they did an inspection and discovered the culvert had shifted and rotated, and found large portions of the bottom of the culvert had failed.

“So then we kind of went into a situation of, ‘we have to make some repairs here, we’re going have to fix this,'” he said.

Vogrig added that in August 2022, he and the construction team realized the structural lining of the River Street bridge wouldn’t work and had to do a full culvert replacement.

“The old structure was just normal round culverts, so they have a bottom on them and the water would just go through those. So this is different in the sense, [this new culvert is] just a one-piece unit and it has an open bottom.”

In addition, Vogrig said they will typically plan and design a project a year in advance. But they ‘didn’t have that luxury’ with this one.

“The big culvert that’s in place now isn’t something that’s just readily available, it has to be built and constructed to suit your particular project,” he said. “So those are the kinds of things that typically you would have planning time and resources to do.”

Vogrig said the construction crew has tried to finish as fast as they could, but the construction is a large-scale project and they maybe underestimated the amount of work it would take to get it done.

“Overall, I don’t think really the project went super far behind schedule. Maybe we underestimated the actual time that it needed to get done.”

River Street not a priority, says Fatima

Fatima is an international student from Pakistan. She said she’s reflected on the different places she’s lived before moving to River Street, and has seen other bridges get fixed much sooner in comparison to the one on River. She said a one-kilometre river bridge in Pakistan was under construction for only six months.

“It’s a small bridge, it’s not a big deal,” she said. “And what I have known through my experiences of [bridge construction] is even in countries where I come from, developing countries, they are done pretty quicker than it’s taking here to finish a small bridge.”

Fatima said she doesn’t think River Street is considered a priority, because if it were, it would’ve been finished by now.

“The work is finished quite early [in the day],” she said. “There is a lot of time [in] the day which can be utilized for that. And I see the workers working on rainy days and heavy wind days. But I [think] if they utilize their whole day properly, they might finish it [sooner].”

She said she often asks workers when the construction will be complete, and they usually say it will take a month.

“I just don’t understand, like every time when we ask, it’s like, ‘Oh, now it’s all finished,’ but it’s not all finished. And it takes ages to finish.”

Road closure allows neighbours to meet each other

Bonnie Satten and Charles Faust have lived on River Street for 10 years. While the two recognize how the road’s closure and construction work has created hardships for some residents, they said they haven’t really been impacted.

“It hasn’t really inconvenienced us,” said Satten. “In fact, it’s been really lovely and quiet.”

Before the road closed, Satten said River Street was always loud because of the busy traffic going up and down the road. Now, it’s quiet, which has allowed her and Faust to get to know their neighbours across the street.

“It’s true that it was almost impossible to have a conversation with your neighbour across the street because of noise,” said Faust. “You’d have to try and wait for a chance to dodge between the traffic and go and talk to them.”

While the two said they haven’t been seriously affected by the road closure, Faust said it’s important to understand that when construction like this comes along, there will be advantages and disadvantages that affect people’s convenience.

“I wouldn’t want to make light of the hardships that some people have had, because some people have really had more trouble with it than we’ve had,” he said.

Satten said the construction is inconvenient because they can’t drive down River Street because of the closure, but “on the whole, we have not suffered from this construction.”

“I don’t think I’ll be disappointed [when the construction ends], but I’ll miss the quiet.”

Impacts on traffic, city services

As a Lakehead University student, Fatima said she relies on city transportation to get to school. But with the road closed, she said she must walk approximately 12 minutes to catch the bus.

“I was expecting that the bus [would] pass [through] here. But that didn’t happen, and the construction was not completed back then and it still continues to go on,” she said.

Fatima added her home didn’t get its garbage and recycling picked up a few weeks ago because of the road construction.

As for Satten, she said her and Faust still get city services, such as garbage and recycling collection. She said they can also park their vehicles on River Street.

For Fatima, she said she’s concerned about the noise level that’s come from the construction. She’s even had to leave her home to attend her online classes elsewhere because it can get so loud, she said.

On the other hand, Satten said her and Faust don’t really get annoyed by the noise.

“River Street isn’t a quiet street at the best of times when there’s full traffic,” she said. “So we might get the little ‘ding ding dings’ and the crushing of rock in the daytime, but there’s no nighttime noise.”

Road projected to reopen in September

According to lead engineer Vogrig, River Street is hoped to reopen the second or third week of September. He said the bridge has progressed quite well.

There are still things left to be done such as installing a portion of the water main, disassembling and removing the utility bridge built to support the gas line and telecommunications lines, and putting down concrete, he said.

As for Satten, she said she thinks the construction workers are doing the best they can to get the bridge finished.

“They’re doing a really thorough job,” said Satten. “And the people have been very communicative … when you think about it, like the gas line, for example, you don’t want them to just say, ‘Oh well, unhook this and unhook that.’ You want them to really be careful about what they’re doing.”

Faust said the construction is a large project and he understands the time it takes to design a culvert.

“There are a lot of complexities to it, which I understand from having worked in that field, and so I think they’ve done the best they can. It’s a big job.”

Regardless, Faust recognizes the difficulties residents have faced because of the road closure.

“It’s time to get it open again. For everyone’s sake.”