Planned work on the Connecting Link won't be done this year.
At the March 9 council meeting, Timmins CAO Dave Landers said one bid was received for the planned roadwork on Algonquin Boulevard from Mattagami Boulevard South just east of the bridge to Theriault Boulevard.
While the city engineer's estimate for the section was about $6.1 million, Landers said the sole bid was for almost $8.5 million.
Landers' recommendation is to not do the Connecting Link work this year. He suggested using money earmarked for the Connecting Link to tackle detour roads, such as Laforest.
In the meantime, he also wants to talk to the Ministry of Transportation to allow for multi-year projects.
"Perhaps if we’re able to put out a multi-year project we might be able to either create a larger project itself of split the work over a couple of construction seasons, which might be more attractive for contractors and provide some more competition into the market because they’d be able to plan a couple years of activity in advance,” said Landers.
Looking at doing longer segments of road is also a consideration.
“If a short stretch of the Connecting Link such as what we were contemplating this year is going to come in so pricey we might very well have to bulk up to get some economy of scale to make these projects doable, which is a whole nother financing discussion that we’ll have to sort out and come back with,” he said.
In Timmins, the Connecting Link is a 21.35-kilometre stretch of Highway 101 running from Kamiskotia Road in the west to the old railway tracks in Porcupine.
Since 2016 more than $19 million of roadwork has been done on about five kilometres from the top of Rae Hill to Legion Drive.
"Now is the time that we put a strategy together that we can live with and that will include the financing strategy. We know for a fact we will never get a proper bid, or a true bid if this is a true bid, when we get one bid," said Mayor George Pirie.
He said the city is at a crisis with infrastructure, and that a conversation about bypass roads is planned for next week.
He said there are a number of alternatives, but all the parties — industrial users, truck companies and the province — have to be at the table.
“When we put our heads together and develop a strategy it’s going to be a long-term strategy that’s designed to do exactly that — get this infrastructure built at the lowest possible cost, in the fastest possible time frame, with the least disruption to our citizens,” he said.
While Coun. Noella Rinaldo understands why the 2020 Connecting Link work is being postponed, she said the city has to start at some point and thinks the price is only going to get worse.
To save costs and be less disruptive to the downtown core, Coun. Joe Campbell suggested looking at "shave and pave" where they can.
The Algonquin work slated for this year included replacing old infrastructure underground that is nearing its end of life.
“Today Algonquin is closed not because of the asphalt, it’s because of the sewer lines and the water lines,” said Coun. Rock Whissell, noting every time there is a break the asphalt is removed.
“The longer that we wait the more Algonquin will be closed and the more the infrastructure will start to deteriorate as we go,” he said.
