Progress made to fix concrete culvert

Plan involves liner inside deteriorating structure

The wheels are turning regarding a plan to fix a problematic concrete culvert that has forced the closure of a road near Harbourville.

Russia Road is currently closed to the public because a large concrete culvert at Bear Brook vault is deteriorating on the south side.

Area resident Brian Van Rooyen said a community committee is receiving updates from the provincial Public Works Department.

Van Rooyen said area residents are pleased with the progress being made, “but will feel much more positive” once they see work on the problematic culvert get underway.

“We are watching and waiting for the work to begin on the culvert repair,” he said.

A tender has been issued to secure a contractor to repair the culvert. Van Rooyen said they anticipate that bids could close any day now.

PROJECT TIMEFRAME

The successful contractor will likely be on site later this month to build a temporary road to the bottom of the

Bear Brook vault to access the upstream end of the existing culvert.

“It is also expected that the contractor will begin the actual repair in November and work through the winter, weather permitting,” Van Rooyen said.

He said the plan is to insert a liner into the existing culvert in sections. The liner will be secured in place as the sections are inserted, using an expandable foam material to complete the repair.

Van Rooyen said preliminary work has already started on a capital upgrade of Russia Road. This includes cleaning out the ditches and adding about six inches of new gravel to the road. It’s anticipated that this could take a couple of construction seasons to finish.

He said Public Works would soon be posting a new sign on Highway 360, near Russia Road, to let motorists know that Russia Road is closed. Van Rooyen said one of the main complaints people have is that the many detour signs are confusing, but the new sign will “make all the detour signs more intelligible.”

Coun. Dick Killam, who represents the affected area on Kings County council, has been helping to facilitate communication between the community and Public Works as they work toward a solution. Kings West MLA Chris Palmer has also been involved with these efforts. Killam said things are looking promising.

“It’s encouraging,” Killam said regarding the progress being made.

“The communication lines are open, and it appears they are going to start this month and into November.”

He said community members are pleased to now know what is going on in terms of the timeline involved with getting the work started.

Killam said it was a good experience for residents to get together with representatives of Public Works to talk about the project. Everyone now knows where everyone else is coming from.

ROAD CLOSURE

Public Works placed concrete barricades across Russia Road in the vicinity of the large concert culvert sometime in the spring of 2020.

The barriers were placed on either side of the culvert, which is at the bottom of a dip in the road at Bear Brook vault. This was done to prevent vehicles from crossing the culvert, which is deteriorating on the south side. Someone moved the barriers aside on a few occasions and Public Works has put them back.

Most recently, a large berm of rock about four feet high was placed across the road at the bottom of the dip, over top of the culvert, and rock was used to reinforce the western concrete barricade.

Motorists have had to detour up to 12 km around the problematic culvert and there are public safety concerns when it comes to emergency response vehicles potentially having to do so.

In an earlier interview, Van Rooyen said they discussed with Public Works the possibility of opening one lane on the north side of the road to local traffic before construction to fix the culvert begins.

However, he said this was “a long shot” because of concerns over the potential collapse of the culvert.