Storm sewer work to hit street in uptown core starting in July
A street in the uptown core adjacent to Kings Square and City Market will be the next to see heavy construction for a four-month period, the city says.
Saint John city staff held two public information sessions on the Charlotte Street street reconstruction project Thursday at the Trinity Church. The project to install storm sewers on a stretch of the street from Union to Kings Square South will also include removal of the traffic light at the top of King Street as well as adjusting a transit stop, according to city engineer Jill DeMerchant.
"Our municipal plans do mention a lot of improvements along this street both for cyclists and pedestrians," DeMerchant said. "While we're down there ripping up the street, installing storm sewers, this is our opportunity to reconstruct the street."
Once the construction tender is approved at an upcoming council meeting, work is expected to begin in July and continue through to October, Michael Baker, the city's chief engineer, told a council meeting last week.
DeMerchant, who is a municipal and traffic engineer, said that modeling by consultants found "a lot of congestion" at the two intersections, more than there should be given the traffic flow. She said replacing the King Street intersection with a stop light and adding vehicle detection to the Kings Square North intersection in front of the City Market, which is on a timer, "is going to help."
She said that a bike lane will run along Charlotte Street, which means that two parking pads will be removed, and the Royal Bank-Charlotte St. transit stop, which services three routes, will be shifted across the intersection to Kings Square South, the short street that runs past the Imperial Theatre.
DeMerchant said the tender does indicate that the contractor will need to provide pedestrian access, but said there will be "delays and disruption" to vehicle traffic, including on Charlotte from Union Street to Kings Square North, where through traffic will be blocked, with local traffic access "depending on where the hole is." She said the rest of the stretch from Kings Square North to Kings Square South would have a lane stay open.
"We do plan on meeting with the businesses throughout the project to make sure that if any problems come up, we address those, and we're letting them know what our plans are," she said.
She said at the sessions they've "heard from lot" of businesses and residents, asking about the timelines and how access will be maintained, and got "good feedback."
Seif Khachnoui, owner of Freddie's Pizza and Donair at 27 Charlotte St., said that it will "100 per cent affect business," saying that the main access to the business is on Charlotte Street, so the project would cut off trucks delivering food, delivery drivers and customers. They offer in-house delivery as well as list on delivery apps, and Khachnoui said they serve about 50/50 foot traffic to deliveries.
He said the time period through July and August affects the business because it's "definitely the time we're waiting to pick up" in sales, when they'd expect cruise ship traffic and nightlife. He said there needs to be pedestrian access and it would be nice to see signage.
"As a business owner, honestly, I'm a little upset," Khachnoui said. "In another way as well, I see it as a nice upgrade for street, it's going to look a lot better."
At Saint John Common Council's meeting last week, Coun. Paula Radwan said there were "a lot of challenges" around the Waterloo Street reconstruction, and asked how they might be mitigated to ensure full accessibility, including for wheelchairs.
Baker told the meeting that this reconstruction will be "a little smaller" than past projects because water and sanitary sewers are already in place, "so it's not as deep."
"It hopefully won't have as much issues on that, but it's definitely still disruptive," Baker said. He said that the contract would include provisions that the contractor may have to work six days a week if needed to finish the project on time.
Baker said that the intent would be to have pedestrian access using gravel, because crews would start with pipe work, then street excavation, then replacing the curbs and sidewalks.
Radwan told Brunswick News in an interview she attended one of the meetings Thursday and said that staff are "open to mitigate challenges," but with the contract not awarded, they can't know the schedule in terms of when work will happen and how mitigations will take place.
She said that when work happened on Waterloo Street, it was dirt access that you can't easily get a wheelchair through, and said that there are residents who live on Charlotte Street who use wheelchairs. She suggested either wooden planks to replace the sidewalk or temporary metal walkways as seen during road construction in cities like Toronto.
"I think, personally, that the city should be dictating what they need," and let the contractors who bid respond, Radwan said. "To me, that expectation just has to be set. You have to, by law, make things accessible, so how are you going to do that?"
Radwan said the city should work with the Uptown Saint John association to communicate with businesses. She said some business owners are concerned, saying they've already had to deal with COVID and other pressures, noting that a business can usually withstand a day of closure but cutting sales in half for an extended period can kill a business. It can have a "major impact."
"This investment on Charlotte is a great one, it needs to happen," she said. "We just need to mitigate the challenges businesses are going to have, and there's ways to do it ... this could be a thorn in their side, but it doesn't have to be."
Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Telegraph-Journal
