The full closure of Howard Avenue in front of Devonshire Mall may be over, but Windsor’s infrastructure commissioner said traffic disruptions are far from finished.
“A lot of residents have reached out to a lot of councillors over the weekend saying — I’ll use the word ‘disaster’ — but they used some worse words,” said Coun. Mark McKenzie during Monday’s meeting of Windsor city council.
McKenzie asked city administration for a public update on the detours, noting frustration over the temporary routing of vehicles through the Devonshire Mall parking lot.
David Simpson, the city’s commissioner of infrastructure services, said the three-day full closure was “unfortunate” but necessary to install a 1.2-metre water feeder main.
“That critical leg of that construction project is completed,” Simpson told council.
“Now, they can carry on doing some of the more ancillary works related to that.”
Enwin, which is leading the first phase of construction, expects to finish its portion — a seven-kilometre feeder main to support growth in south Windsor — between early and late June.
After that, the city will take over work on the intersection, including storm sewer improvements, road reconstruction and a new railway grade crossing at Sydney Avenue.
“In that future state, the intent is there will simply just be north and south lane reductions to one lane going forward,” Simpson said.
“So, I’ll say the worst is over in terms of that three-day full closure period.”
McKenzie also pressed for details about how detours are selected, citing similar concerns from residents during past work at Tecumseh and Walker roads.
“Some of them maybe just don’t make the most sense to some residents,” McKenzie said.
“They’re using roads that, maybe looking at it, we’d be like, ‘Maybe that one doesn’t make sense.‘”
Simpson said detour plans are mapped out before construction even begins, starting with a proposal from the contractor, which is then reviewed and adjusted by city traffic operations staff.
“In some cases, there’s no slam dunk to avoid traffic impacts,” Simpson said.
“In that particular case, the impact was also felt on Dougall. A lot of flow went over to Dougall as well as Walker.”
He added the city considers nearby construction projects when approving traffic plans but sometimes drivers don’t follow them anyway.
“Even when we’ve laid out the best traffic detour, the general public may choose to not follow it anyway,” Simpson said.
“So, we can’t really control that driving behaviour.”
He said city staff are expected to enforce detour plans both through site visits and daily meetings with contractors.
“There’s two valid forums,” Simpson said.
“One is the actual site presence by our project engineers … and the second forum is the regular, almost daily, site meetings. That’s where it’s more formalized for discussion in terms of any concerns that have arisen.”
The next phase of work begins after Monday, when the railway crossing on Howard between Division Road and South Cameron Boulevard will close permanently.
The project is expected to wrap by the end of October. All businesses will remain accessible throughout the work.
