December 16, 2011

Contractors start excavation for Windsor, Ontario highway extension

RON STANG

correspondent

Tree removal and vegetation grubbing will be all but completed at the end of December as work started in earnest on the 11-kilometre Windsor-Essex Parkway border highway last month.

A more than 10-lane wide clear cut swath is now noticeable to motorists between Ojibway Parkway on the city’s west side and the end of Highway 401. So far 2,070 project workers have been hired and work is taking place simultaneously in several spots along the route, which will be completed in 2014 and is planned to connect to a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit.

The first tangible aspects of completed infrastructure are a couple of bridges near where Hwy. 401 meets Hwy. 3, the widening to six lanes of the last few kilometres of Hwy. 401, and demolition of the North Talbot Road Hwy. 401 overpass, which dated from the 1950s.

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As well, wide areas of wick drains can be seen on the far west end of the highway footprint near the Detroit River where the ground contains the most moisture.

Next up will be piling at eight bridge and tunnel locations for what will be a largely submerged six-lane highway with an at-grade four-lane service road, which will replace most of the current route from Hwy. 401 to the border.

The first pile driving gets underway this month for a new North Talbot Road bridge, which should be in place by spring. This will be followed by work at two bridges (at St. Clair College and Huron Church Line) and two tunnels (at Villa Borghese; Hearthwood and Oliver Estates). Work will begin on the Labelle tunnel in April and finally the Labelle Street-Lambton Road bridge by July.

“Most of the clearing and grubbing has been completed, the trees and vegetation have been removed,” said Cindy Prince, spokeswoman for Parkway Infrastructure Constructors (PIC), the joint venture overseeing design and construction. “That group (of workers) will continue to work until about Christmas cleaning up the stumps and the roots and getting all the area ready for excavation.”

There will also be a series of road diversions, which Prince compared to “almost like an artery bypass” and loops of “the same standard” as existing roads, so that bridge, tunnel and utility installations can take place where the current highway is.

Trees that have been removed will either be used for lumber or chipped for mulch. Prince said a reciprocal arrangement has been made with local landscapers to take fresh mulch now and then have them provide new mulch in three years time for the Parkway’s extensive natural landscaping on top of 11 extended tunnels and perimeter areas, which in turn will be crisscrossed with a series of pedestrian and biking trails.

Prince says installation of the wick drains will continue for “at least the next three months.”

Major construction has also begun on the Howard Ave. diversion and a connecting roundabout in Windsor and neighbouring LaSalle, to provide a major commuting route after the existing Howard Avenue is blocked off. The work should be completed by summer.

General Parkway construction will advance simultaneously in large part to get the project completed in the shortest period of time.

“The intensity of the construction is much more but the time period that it takes is much less,” Prince said. “So the thinking was, construction isn’t a pleasant activity for those who live near it. We’re taking a major highway through a built up urban area, let’s try to do it as quickly and in as short of a time frame as possible.”

Excavation will first be done at bridges and tunnels, the works will then be built, and the connecting sections of roadway excavated. “We’re not excavating from the east end to the west end,” she said. “We’re excavating for this tunnel, this bridge, this tunnel, this bridge, all throughout the project, and many of them all at the same time.”

Philip Murray, the Parkway’s engineering-design lead, also said that a theme has been chosen for aesthetic form lines on structures like the fascia of barrier walls and overpass parapet walls. Noise barriers will be at a minimum because the highway will be submerged as deep as 10 metres, “one of the reasons” for the sunken expressway in the first place, Murray said. Surface barriers will either be acoustic or natural berms.

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