The next phase of the Connecting Link road reconstruction has been given the green light.
Timmins council has awarded the contract administration of the project to Aecom, while MIller Paving Ltd. will be doing the construction work.
This year's phase of the Connecting Link is a 1.3-kilometre stretch of Highway 101 starting just east of Goldale Road to the bottom of Rae Hill.
Miller Paving's bid of $4.2 million plus HST approved by council is slightly higher than the engineering departments estimate of $4.06 million.
Timmins has applied for Connecting Link funding, which has a maximum contribution of $3 million. The remaining cost will be covered by gas tax funding.
Director of engineering and public works Pat Seguin said the deadline to apply for the funding is the end of this month, with funding notice being given in June.
When the work is being done, Seguin said other than traffic slowing down it shouldn't be obstructed.
"Two lanes will be closed down, we’ll reconstruct them and then switch traffic over," he explained.
The contract administration bid awarded to Aecom is worth $207,120 plus HST.
Seguin said it includes 1,100 man hours and will take about four months. The cost also includes about $50,000 for geotechnical testing.
Aecom is the consultant who did the design for the phase.
The reconstruction won't include a concrete a concrete median barrier on Rae Hill. It was removed from the design back in February.
In 2016, council of the day asked for the road design to include an 800-metre barrier, which at the time had a $1-million price tag.
The estimated cost to do the work today, including rock removal and embankment widening, is $2.4 million.
Connecting Link is an ongoing roadwork program upgrading the main artery through town.
Seguin said next year's focus is in the design stages and is for Algonquin Boulevard from the Mattagami Bridge to Theriault.
