Cestar College has fulfilled its generous $4 million dollar donation toward construction of the Sarnia-Lambton Oversize Load Corridor.
The final installment has been received by the City of Sarnia.
Project Manager Lyle Johnson said construction of the corridor is progressing smoothly.
"We have all the utilities relocated along Exmouth Street, Confederation, Churchill, Plank and Kimball to Petrolia Line, and from Petrolia Line to Polymoore Drive," said Johnson.
He said there are 18 crossings still to complete.
"There's three major ones at Enbridge Solar Farms that will be completed sometime this spring and then there's miscellaneous bits and pieces along the route between now and the end of the year."
Johnson said rotating bases are also being installed on traffic signals, so the infrastructure can swing out of the way.
"We've installed 10 to date along Exmouth Street and we've got another 12 to do along Murphy and then four at the intersection of Churchill, Plank and Kimball."
Oversized load corridor sign at Blackwell and Confederation in Sarnia. January 2022. Photo by Sue Storr.
Johnson gives Bluewater Power high praise for maintaining its crews and schedule during the pandemic to get the work done.
He said once road work is complete, they'll focus on the dock at the end of Exmouth Street, with construction scheduled to start this summer and completion expected in the first quarter of 2023.
"We have all of our environmental impact permits and applications in place and they're under review by the various agencies, so we're expecting to have those wrapped up somewhere between now and mid year."
Cestar College’s donation will be recognized with naming rights to the new dock facility which will be constructed as part of the project.
Sarnia council will consider accepting a $6 million tender for construction of the dock on Monday.
Bronte Construction submitted the lowest of nine bids.
As part of the dock project an offsetting fish habitat, which includes a series of shoals, boulders, rocks and in-water plantings, was required.
A preliminary design has been completed and it will be located in an area off Centennial Park.
Johnson said most of the materials needed to build the oversize load corridor have been locally sourced.
"We did see a pretty significant increase in the steel price for the piling that's required for the dock and that is a concern. We want to get that ordered as soon as we get a contractor in place to do that."
The latest cost estimate for the permanent corridor, to truck industrial modules between industry, metal fabrication shops and Sarnia Harbour, is $17 million.