Centre Wellington council quickly passed a bylaw on Monday morning at a special meeting to close a section of a street in Fergus for construction.
Tower Street South, a part of Highway 6, was to be closed from Monday until this Friday.
The bylaw was an addendum to the township’s special council meeting to hear progress from department heads on the strategic planning of the past year and to look into the coming year.
Denis Hollands, of Triton Engineering, told council the bylaw was required by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario.
He said traffic would be rerouted through St. David Street north to Belsyde Avenue for the week.
The road needs work because services are being put in place for the Highland Hills development.
Hollands said time is “of the essence” because the project was to start that morning. The work includes new sanitary storm sewers and water mains.
Hollands noted somewhat ruefully that the connections the subdivision needs are on the opposite side of the road, so the entire street must be closed.
“It should be open again by Friday,” he said of one of the more heavily travelled roads in Fergus.
Council gave the bylaw three readings and it passed unanimously. Councillor Bob Foster was absent.
Public Works Director Ken Elder told council’s committee of the whole later in the day the traffic had been backed up heavily all day, so the township was working to have at least the southbound lane open by Tuesday, as well as resetting David Street traffic lights to allow traffic to flow more smoothly.
