February 23, 2012

PEEL REGION

Highway 50 in Brampton is being expanded along a five-kilometre stretch starting at Queen Street West. General contractor Pave-Al Lmited commenced work there last June and will return to the site this spring.

FEATURE | Roadbuilding

Highway 50 construction in Brampton, Ontario approaches mid-way point

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

For commuters driving along busy Highway 50 near Queen Street East in Brampton, the construction activity never seems to stop.

The installation of a $30-million, 750-mm sanitary trunk sewer a few kilometres north of the intersection has been underway since May 2010.

While it wraps up this April, the first phase of a three-year $24-million expansion of the highway is just barely at the mid-way point.

The overall five-kilometre project involves adding two new lanes—one southbound and one northbound—which will transform the highway from a five-lane rural roadway to a seven-lane urban roadway complete with curbs and gutters, new street lighting, upgraded traffic signal lanes, a new sidewalk along the west side and concrete bus lanes to facilitate Brampton Transit, York Transit and GO Transit routes.

In June 2011, contractor Pave-Al Limited began working on the $8.5-million first phase from Queen Street East north to Ebenezer Road. They will be back on site as soon as the spring construction seasons starts, says Peel Region project manager Tony Bosco. The consultant is URS Canada.

The widening is necessary to meet current and project traffic growth stemming, in part, from new development in the area. An environmental assessment in 2005 showed that stretch of the highway had an annual average daily traffic (AADT) count of 43,600, says Bosco.

With a major sewer installation in the area, the highway expansion had to be timed to avoid potential disruption to both projects. The sewer is being installed on the west side, which is why the Pave-Al crews starting building the northbound lane on the opposite side of the highway last year. “It was brought up to the base asphalt level.”

This spring the crews will move to the east side so they can build the southbound lane. “We’ll probably use echelon paving for the final lift.”

And the sewer installation has progressed further north so the roadwork can proceed unhindered, says Bosco.

The careful staging of the expansion isn’t the only challenge. To meet best management practices, an 11-metre-deep oil grit separator will be installed to treat stormwater. “We don’t have the property (to create) wider flat bottom ditches.”

However, there is only an 11-metre distance from the separator’s centre point to the edge of an adjacent grocery store and a deep shoring system will be required to prevent earth settlement, says Bosco.

It’s anticipated this first phase will be completed by the end of December, although the contractor is hoping to accelerate the schedule, he says.

Still, that doesn’t mean fewer slowdowns and congestion for drivers. Tenders for the 3.5-kilometre-long second phase will be issued shortly and work along that stretch will be in full bloom by the summer, says Bosco.

As part of a test experiment, Super Pave asphalt will be used in construction of the first leg and Marshall Mix asphalt will be used for the second phase, says Bosco.

“Given high volume of commuter traffic and truck traffic along the Hwy 50 corridor, these two sections will provide the region with a good opportunity to see how the two different types of asphalt will perform in the years to come.”

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