Residents of Stevenson Street in Guelph look forward to better things when the reconstruction of their street is complete. For now, they are enduring a fair amount of inconvenience, including pervasive sewage smells, higher water bills, dust, noise, and ground shakes.
The section of the street from Grange Street to Cassino Avenue is in full-blown overhaul mode, with heavy equipment chugging away to replace water and sewer infrastructure, reconfiguring the street to include new sidewalks and bike lanes. The street will transition from four vehicle lanes to two, and is expected to slow down as a result.
Once the Grange to Cassino section is done, Cassino to Bennett Avenue will be torn up and put through the same process.
Greg Halonen and Donna Jennison have lived on Stevenson near Grange for 16 years. The street, they said, was in very rough shape, and increasingly dangerous. Traffic had increased in recent years.
With a number of schools in the neighbourhood, there have always been lots of children using the one old, uneven sidewalk.
“They were walking right next to the traffic,” Jennison said, adding that the traffic generally moved too fast through the area. Reducing the number of lanes, she said, should slow it down and make conditions safer.
Halonen said given the dry conditions throughout the summer, dust has been a problem, rising from the heavy machinery and settling on everything. He is concerned about the environmental impact of that dust.
The street is lined with bright blue tubing above ground, a temporary waterline to supply homes. Halonen and Jennison said the water has been running through it constantly in order to ensure it remains cold. A lot of that water is going into the storm sewer, and residents are seeing significant spikes in their water bill, they said.
Ricki Bristow, a street resident also near Grange, has three small children, and chickens in her backyard. During the day, she said, the baby crib is placed in the bathroom, the quietest room in the house, so that the baby can sleep. The construction noise has been intense, and her chickens aren’t laying well because of it.
“It’s awful, a huge pain,” she said. “It’s so loud, and the ground shakes.”
Construction starts at 6 a.m. and runs all day until 7 p.m., she said. There is a loss of water at least twice a week.
Bristow and others said the sewer mains are left open and the stench is strong, especially throughout the night and even on weekends.
“They say they are hoping to be done before it snows, but there are no guarantees,” Bristow said.
All inconveniences aside, residents are glad the work is being done. It will lead to vast improvements in safety, and liveability, they said.
Jennison said the project, which represents a complete replacement of the street, offered a highly teachable moment for the city. But residents have mostly been left to learn for themselves what the work entailed and how it would impact their lives.
“They could have done something like a tour with residents, letting people know what’s happening,” she said. An opportunity was missed, but she hopes the city will consider taking such an approach on future projects.
According to the city’s website, the Grange to Cassino section was expected to take six months to complete. Some elements of the work began in May, but the complete overhaul began in early July.
Jennison said members of the Blue-Con Construction crew have been very helpful and accommodating throughout the project.
Access to homes has been maintained.
