Cold weather vital to construction

There are times in road construction when cold weather work is not only preferable, but almost essential.

One such example was the contract that Winnipeg City Hall awarded Bayview Construction earlier this year for a reconstruction and twinning of a road in east Winnipeg.

Panet Road is a north-south artery whose southern end (from the point of view of the reconstruction project) is in the heart of a busy commercial area.

Going north, the west side of the road is residential while a  multi-lane high speed roadway is on the  other side.

The twinning project has been made necessary by a tremendous growth in residential housing and subsequent growth in traffic.

The challenge, said Brad Sacher, Winnipeg City Hall’s director of public works, is that there are large ditches on either side of the road reflecting the road’s rural origins.

"The problem with working down in ditches building underground drainage and sewer systems is that in warm weather you can easily find yourself working in a quagmire," he said.

"The best time to do that kind of work is while there is still frost in the ground so that the ground can better support the heavy equipment needed to do the work."

As a result, city hall fast tracked that part of the reconstruction work.

In March, the city approved $6.4 million for a series of contracts for Bayview with the first to install the drainage and sewer systems while the ground was still frozen.

Sacher reported that Bayview began work on the underground drainage and sewer lines and finished that contract by the beginning of June.

A second challenge with the Panet Road project, Sacher noted, is that a major railway crossing is involved.

"We had to close the road at the beginning of September for a period of time to allow Bayview to work on the rail crossing," he said.

The road should be re-opened to traffic by the end of October, he adds.

The total cost of the project is $10.1-million including engineering and related work and the cost of land acquisition.