PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — The construction tender for the project that will redesign Port Hawkesbury’s main thoroughfare has been awarded to Dexter Construction.
Terry Doyle, CAO for the Town of Port Hawkesbury, said Dexter was the low bidder of three proposals that were received.
“Our pre-construction meeting is set for April 24, I believe, so at that time we’ll have established a schedule and have started the process of preparing for construction,” Doyle said. “We expect construction to start this spring.”
The tender stated that the contractor must agree to complete all work for the first phase of the project by Oct. 18, 2019 and all work for the second phase by June 26, 2020.
The project finally got the approval to proceed from Port Hawkesbury town council in February with some design changes.
Councillors unanimously voted at the meeting against a motion to remove the most controversial aspect of the proposal, the “road diet” which will see the reduction of one kilometre of the four-lane road to three lanes, including a left-turning lane.
Coun. Blaine MacQuarrie had earlier brought forward a notice of motion to amend the proposal submitted to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, removing the road diet portion, with the remaining components continuing to move forward.
Council sought more information from its funding partners — ACOA and the transportation department — over concerns that removing the road diet would place other components of the project, which includes a façade program, in jeopardy.
Of the $5-million project, the road diet portion is $1.3 million.
Changes to the design were subsequently made, including the elimination of the proposed bicycle lane for the road diet portion of the street, the one-kilometre lane stretch from the intersection at Pitt Street to Trunk 4A.
There will also be upgraded intersections including improved traffic lights at the Pitt and Reynolds street intersections.
The road diet portion will also now be subject to a one-year pilot.
In December, ACOA confirmed to the Cape Breton Post that the federal government contribution to the project is $1,606,420. The total project cost is $5,385,040.
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