If all goes according to plan, Huntsville’s Diggin’ Downtown will be finished by mid-July.
Tarmo Uukkivi, Director of Operations and Protective Services, says Caroline St. will re-open to two-way traffic this afternoon. All remaining detours will be lifted by the end of today.
He says that will mark the beginning of the fifth and final stage of the project.
Uukkivi says construction crews will still be present over the next “several weeks” while they finish up construction. “Stage five will happen in a number of different moving parts,” he explains.
That includes the final lift of asphalt, which Huntsville council approved to be done overnight. It’s not known yet what day the work will be done, but Uukkivi says it will happen over one or two nights between 7 PM and 7 AM. He explains construction crews will work around the weather, so exact details on when the paving will happen will be released when available.
There will be a full road closure of Main Street from the bridge to Lorne Street while the lift is being done.
The last stage will also involve filling in any cracks that may have popped up on the new sidewalks, and installing the proper signage along the road.
Uukkivi says work may finish earlier, but the town has given a soft deadline of mid-July to account for any possible delays. He explains poor weather and supply shortages could push back the project’s end date. “That’s why we don’t have an end date,” Uukkivi adds.
“We are pleased that all underground infrastructure has been installed and property owners in the downtown core are successfully operating on new connections,” says Mark Misko, Director of Engineering and Transportation for the District of Muskoka. “As we enter the final stage of construction, crews will be working to make finishing touches on above-ground work and completing the final lift of asphalt in the next few weeks.”