It’s been a long wait but paving is well underway on the main street in Keremeos.
By the time the paper went to press the majority of the street was paved including out in front of the liquor store, Emmy’s Bake Shop, Napa Auto Parts, and the Wrong Turn Tavern. All of these businesses spoke with the Review earlier this season noting business was significantly down because of the dust and dirt.
The roadway has been ripped up for the last several months as the water main replacement project went through unexpected challenges including the groundwater raising to just below the road level.
New sections of curb and sidewalk will allow safer pedestrian crossings at 4th, 5th and 6th streets.
There is still some work to be done including tie-ins for several businesses and further beautifying projects on the curb flares.
The Sparks Drive water main replacement has yet to start but will not be as disruptive for most residents as the downtown project.
The downtown project had a bumpy start when not one contractor was free to bid on it when it was first tendered in July 2017. Contractors were busy working on flooding and fire related jobs at the time, pushing the project from a fall 2017 start date to spring 2018.
Several other problems cropped up including a deep freeze just as work was to start, which meant machines could not be used; an outside agency was late on providing a necessary permit; and bones were discovered more than once, None of the bones turned out to be human but under the Heritage Act work must be halted as an investigation is underway.
High groundwater in May and early June delayed the project even further and a decades old soil contaminated with petroleum at the corner of 7th Avenue and 7th Street had to be investigated and eventually removed.
Each delay pushed back the schedule while some of the elements of the project such as paving were subcontracted out, which meant an impact to those areas.
“The contractor has shown great patience and professionalism with the delays which were outside the Village’s or the contractor’s control and displayed commendable community spirit in assisting the village with armouring sewer infrastructure in preparation for the flooding,” a release from the village stated.