Winter’s gone...it must be construction season

City to reward contractors who finish jobs early

The City of Winnipeg is serious about getting its construction projects completed on time this summer. So serious it’s offering cold hard cash to contractors who finish ahead of schedule, while penalizing those who fail to meet their goals.

Two of the major projects that will use these incentives are the rehabilitation of the Fort Garry twin bridges on Bishop Grandin (which is already underway), and the major rehabilitation of St. Mary’s Road between St. Anne’s Road and Fermor Avenue.

Brad Sacher, manager of the city’s transportation engineering division, said the reward and penalty for beating or missing the late-August deadline on Bishop Grandin will be $10,000 a day, up to 20 days.

“This gives an incentive to contractors to use innovative construction techniques,” Sacher said. “The penalties will certainly increase the likelihood of contractors completing projects on time.”

Sacher made the comments as the city unveiled its plans for nearly $180 million in road, bridge and alley construction this year.

The city plans to do work on 17 regional streets at a cost of $22.2 million and 24 local streets costing $11 million.

The major regional streets slated for work include St. James Street, Grant Avenue, Ness Avenue, King Street, McPhillips Street, Oak Point Highway, Corydon Avenue, St. Mary’s Road, Lagimodiere Boulevard and Marion Street.

Work on Lagimodiere between Marion and Fermor Avenue is expected to begin in the next couple weeks.

An additional $3 million is earmarked for reconstructing 13 back alleys after only five were fixed in 2007, and $2.7 million will be used to improve gravel roads.

The city says it will also attempt to do as much work as possible at night, to minimize disruptions to traffic.

“We’re strategic about the timing and nature of projects in order to minimize the inconvenience to the motoring public,” Sacher said, adding that efforts are made not to have too many major roads in a given area under construction at once.

Sacher says the city is better able to determine which roads should be priorities due to new computer-modelling technology.

“Our understanding of how roads deteriorate has improved greatly,” he said. “We’re now able to time the best use of available funds. It used to be ‘worst first’, but trying to keep pavements in good condition at much lower costs is a good way to extend the life of the pavement.”

A complete list of projects is available at www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks and will be updated regularly as start dates become available.