Centre Wellington and Guelph-Eramosa residents dreading long waits during the rehabilitation of Highway 6 this summer and fall, may find the construction less inconvenient than expected.
Centre Wellington
Councillors sitting in the committee of the whole on May 9 had no issues with giving the Ministry of Transportation an exemption from Centre Wellington’s noise bylaw.
That means the ministry will be working on Highway 6 from 0.4km north of County Road 7 northerly to the outskirts of Fergus this summer – at night.
About two-thirds of that stretch or road is located within Centre Wellington, while the remainder is in Guelph-Eramosa Township.
The ministry’s senior project manager Charles Organ told Clerk Marion Morris in a letter the work includes the replacement of several culverts, drainage improvements and pavement rehabilitation.
“During construction, the contractor will be required to keep idling of construction equipment to a minimum and maintain equipment in good working order, with effective muffling devices to reduce dnoice from construction activities,” Organ wrote.
The problem for the ministry is Highway 6 is very busy during the day, as the ministry found out a few years ago when it widened portions of the highway north of Guelph.
So, it plans to work at night.
“In order to minimize and limit travel time impacts to the travelling public, the construction activities will be required to be completed outside of the time permitted in the bylaw,” the letter stated.
“The exemption is requested from 2000 hours to 0800 hours [8pm to 8am] weekdays for the duration of the construction, from June 1 … to Nov. 30.”
Organ stated, “Typical construction activities that will occur during the night include but are not limited to paving operations and culvert replacements. Pile driving will not be required as part of this project.”
He concluded, “We respectfully ask for consideration of our application for an exemption from the noise control bylaw so the works along the highway may be undertaken as efficiently as possible and avoid significant delays due to high daytime traffic volumes. In particular, this exemption is requested to help minimize the duration of temporary lane closures, which impacts local business and commuter traffic. The area of exemption will be limited to the project limits.”
Council agreed unanimously to waive the noise bylaw for the work.
Guelph-Eramosa
Councillors in Guelph-Eramosa reviewed an identical letter from Organ on May 16.
“That’s the perfect time to do it,” councillor Doug Breen said of the over-night hours.
He said given the volume of traffic on the highway, it makes sense to complete the construction at night.
Guelph-Eramosa council also unanimously passed a resolution waiving the township’s noise bylaw from June 1 to Nov. 30.
