ROCKWOOD – After some unexpected delays during reconstruction, a section of Highway 7 through Rockwood will be opening to traffic next week.
The Township of Guelph/Eramosa announced in a news release roadwork and watermain replacement on Rockwood’s Main Street South/Highway 7 will be complete next week, weather permitting.
The township release states road paving, sidewalk and boulevard restoration will take place next week, completing work on the road.
Main Street South between Harris and Frederick Street has been closed since Aug. 3, originally intended for five weeks.
The section had a major watermain break last Christmas Eve, which temporarily left residents without water before a temporary fix was put in place.
Mayor Chris White said in a phone call the original plan was to go down and completely fix the broken part in the spring but council later supported a staff recommendation to do proactive roadwork and replacement because the road would be under construction anyway.
“What we wanted to do is go as far as we could to repair and replace the old stuff, add some new connections and some new valves and modernize it so that we don’t have another break out of the blue,” White said.
This was an initial delay that moved the project to begin this summer but White said further problems emerged with locates, the lay of the land, gravel and granite near where the pipes were.
“One of the bigger delays is the supply chain, plumbing parts are getting harder and harder to get,” White said.
“When they’re down there doing the work and there were a lot of connections and stuff to put together, they ran into some parts shortages that were unexpected.”
The mayor said he understands the detours have been tough on drivers and the extra traffic on residential streets from those who didn’t detour has been challenging for residents.
However, White said the road needed to be fixed so that’s what the township did, despite any delays.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to have brand new infrastructure under there for a nice section of the road and that should help prevent further issues,” White said.
