Ongoing construction on the Highway 400/11 split at the northern edge of Barrie began in the summer of 2016, with the original end date supposed to be the fall of 2018.
Work on the project continues, however, and is currently in the final stage of construction.
While it is now anticipated to be completed by the end of the year, Ministry of Transportation (MTO) senior advisor Michael O’Morrow said there have been some delays.
“There were some weather-related delays caused by rainfall that resulted in fluctuations of the water level of and created obstructions in the creek," he said. "It was these elements that resulted in the need to extend the contract.”
The work being done involves the replacement of the Highway 400 bridge over Willow Creek, which is being completed in several stages to minimize the impact on travellers.
Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips gathered information on how rainfall could be hindering the project’s completion and said things have been pretty much been status quo.
“I gathered data from 2016 until now and the only significant increase in above-normal rainfall was in that first year," Phillips said. "We actually had an usual number of hot days in this four-year span, but nothing abnormal about the precipitation."
'Big' rainfalls are considered 20 millimetres or more in a day. Typically, the area of the city where construction is happening will experience 800 millimetres a year, and within this four-year span there was 968 millimetres on average annually, Phillips said.
But that we haven't seen any "monsoonal-type" weather in the city, Phillips added.
But the climatologist also stressed he's not a construction expert.
“I can’t say for sure if other things truly affected the delay, but it may be one of those situations of when in doubt, blame it on the weather,” Phillips said. “Farmers do it, politicians do it, why not? The weather can be unpredictable at times, but in this span we haven’t had any more significant rainfall than usual.”
Aside from weather, O’Morrow says the highway project wasn’t necessarily different from any others on the go, and most things were considered in the planning stages.
“During the planning and design phases of construction projects, (the) MTO carefully considers how to minimize impacts to the travelling public while allowing for the contractor to maintain effective and efficient operations," he said. "This contract was not particularly different or difficult from a traffic volume perspective.”
It's been a long year of construction for Highway 400 travellers through Barrie, with the Tiffin Street overpass recently completed.
And while the bridge over the 400 from Big Bay Point Road to Harvie Road is in place, work continues on the $76-million project. The bridge — which is expected to relieve congestion around the Mapleview Drive and Essa Road ramps by providing another east-west option for local drivers — is expected to open to traffic at the end of October.
There's also another project along the highway, but it's still a couple years away.
“Reconstruction of the Essa Road interchange is anticipated to begin in 2022, subject to completion of the detailed design, environmental clearance, acquisition of property, relocation of utilities and funding,” O’Morrow said.
