Vision in play for Simpson Street area

A section of Thunder Bay's Simpson Street from Rowand to Dease streets will undergo upgrades this summer, including road surface rehabilitation and demolition of burned and vacant buildings, and work has already begun. Over the past two years, McKellar Ward Coun. Brian Hamilton has been working with the city's engineering department on a plan for the road surface work as well as the redevelopment and consolidation of properties on the eastern block of Simpson Street, also known as Charry's Corner. Hamilton called the area a "high-profile corner" that is part of a major traffic commuter route. "We recognize that as a really integral part of the north-south road network," he said, adding the recent accident that resulted in a pickup truck colliding into one of the vacant buildings has expedited the demolition work. "For the sake of ultimate cost efficiency, we're looking to do a full demolition of the entire block, but some of that land has yet to be acquired (by the city)," Hamilton said. Meanwhile, the city has shored up the building involved in the collision, installed security fencing and maintains surveillance of the area for the safety of the public. During the site investigation, Hamilton said they discovered, "to no surprise," that the underground infrastructure is extremely old, particularly on a section from Rowand to Dease streets. "Rather than just doing a resurface we thought it would be prudent to spend the dollars and actually go in there and do it properly," he said. "That area has seen several water main breaks, and that is extremely disruptive for businesses." He added the city is investing upwards of $6 million into the project to eliminate those disruptions, using Makkinga Contractors to perform the work. This will to go hand in hand with the restoration of the rest of the Simpson Street blocks, which will be coming in future budgets. "We plan to, every year, do a new street through that south-core neighbourhood," Hamilton said. "We did Wiley and Cameron Streets, and this year we're doing Dease Street and I think next year, it's Leith Street. One by one we're going to tackle them all, with the goal to do one street per year between Simpson and May streets. Hopefully, we can get that area all cleaned up because there's some really antiquated infrastructure under the streets there." With the demolition of the burned and dilapidated buildings, there will be vacant land and Hamilton says the city is never the proponent of residential projects. "We only facilitate properties, but now given the Housing Accelerator Fund and a lot of the provincial and federal focus on housing, we are really looking at land development more substantially because there's a lot of opportunities," he said. "Ultimately, a proponent would have to come forward to the city with a proposal and we would work with them to facilitate a potential housing project for that location."

Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal