Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[Drake]

Kitchener’s Victoria Street bridge to be demolished
 

The Victoria Street bridge over Highway 85 will be removed and replaced this year with a wider bridge.
Waterloo Region Record

By Mathew McCarthy

[url=http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6371299-kitchener-s-victoria-street-bridge-to-be-demolished/#][/url]
KITCHENER — The Victoria Street bridge over Highway 85 must be removed and replaced with a wider span, as part of plans to build a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph.
And Shirley Avenue will be upgraded between Bingeman Centre Drive and the new Highway 7-85 interchange area.
Contractors want to work late and overnight on the first phases of the new, 18-kilometre stretch of Highway 7 between Highway 85 and Highway 6.
The province is asking for an exemption from Kitchener's noise control bylaw, so work along Shirley Avenue and Victoria Street can proceed without restriction. Kitchener's community services committee will consider the exemption March 7.
The bridge project is scheduled to start with advance utility relocation work this year. Bridge rebuilding will start in November 2017 and continue through 2018. According to a city report, the project includes:
• Closing Highway 85 overnight as the Victoria Street bridge is demolished overhead
• Lane restrictions along Highway 85 underneath as the bridge construction work proceeds
• Installing a centre median along Victoria between Edna and Bruce
• Intersection improvements at Bruce and Edna streets
The Shirley Avenue rebuilding is scheduled between June 2016 and August 2017, including:
• Extension and widening of Shirley to four lanes with centre turn lane, to match up with Bingeman Centre Drive
• Sidewalks along both sides of the new road
• A dead-end cul-de-sac of the existing street at 68 Shirley Ave.
Land purchases for the new Highway 7 started in 2012. Advance work including widening the Guelph Street underpass of Highway 85 was done in 2015.
In 2014, provincial officials said the new highway would be open in 2020.
The total cost of construction was estimated at $300 million. No updated estimate is available.


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