There could be some short-term traffic chaos in Guelph stating at the end of April as Gordon Street will be closed to through traffic for up to three weeks just south of downtown.
It's all a necessary part of the city's $30 million York Trunk Sewer and Paisley-Clythe Feeder Main Project that will close Gordon from Wellington Street to the Speed River bridge just south of it.
Busses and cars will be redirected down Wellington Street, down Edinburgh Road to Stone Road. Gordon will remain open to pedestrian traffic.
"That's the established detour," said Don Kudo, the city's Manager of Infrastructure Planning; Design and Construction at an open house on the project Tuesday night at the city waterworks building.
He agreed that other than signing an established detour, little could be done to prevent traffic off Gordon Street from using side streets like Water Street as a way of making their way downtown from the south.
"We have to provide local access. But the signage will be set up for that detour," Kudo said.
In progressive phases the city is installing 6.2 kilometres of water pipes and 3.8 kilometres of sewer pipes from Paisley Road north of the Hanlon Parkway all the way to Watson Road.
The feeder main being replaced is a main water line used to transport water from waterworks to the eastern and western edges of the city, Kudo said.
This spring sees the section from just west of Gordon Street, along the speed river to the city waterworks 1.5 kilometres to the east.
Ward 1 councillor Bob Bell, who attended the open house, wanted to make sure that Gordon Street wouldn't be closed at the same time as Victoria Road, which will be closed as part of the Elizabeth Street reconstruction.
He was told the plan is to have Victoria reopened before Gordon is closed, making sure the two arterial roads would not be closed at the same time.
Two baseball diamonds closest to the river as well as a baseball diamond and soccer field just east of the covered bridge will be out of commission for the season as a result of the project. The city hopes to keep the trail along the Eramosa River open through construction.
Several people at Tuesday's open house, attended by roughly 40 people, asked about landfill that lies beneath the ground all along the Eramosa River on the York Road stretch. It was used for landfill up until 1958.
Kudo said testing has been done and they don't expect any unforeseen issues with what they will briefly uncover. There may be some short-term odour issues as old waste is dug up.
"All kinds of investigations have been done to date and that's what we're basing our design on," Kudo said. "It's been characterized primarily as residential (waste)."
Construction starts the last week of April after the end of the University of Guelph school year.
