City council has approved the first phase of a project to reconstruct a section of University Avenue West in Windsor.
A total of $20 million has been budgeted for the University Avenue Corridor Improvements, stretching from McEwan Avenue to Salter Avenue.
The first phase of work approved by council includes the implementation of cycle tracks with dedicated cycling facilities on both sides separated from the curb lane, sidewalks, on-street parking, utility relocation, lining of existing sanitary sewer, new storm sewer systems, new watermains, streetlights, and road rehabilitation along a near one-kilometre-long stretch of the route.
Ward 2 Councillor Fabio Costante says he regards this as the biggest inner city infrastructure project that we have before us.
"It's going to be a catalyst, in my view, to residential development, commercial development, and economic development along that strip," he says.
Costante says this gives us an opportunity to have Windsor's first complete street.
"You're going to have protected bike lanes, boulevards, expanded sidewalks, modes for active transportation, and transit to get in and out of. It gives it a road diet; the current traffic doesn't warrant the four lanes that we see today. I think it's really going to play an instrumental role in residential and commercial development along the strip," he says.
D’Amore Construction Ltd. won the tender and will handle phase one of the project, which is expected to include several more future phases.
Costante says this is a major artery that connects our university campus to the downtown core.
"A big challenge that we have is the perception challenge, more than it is the hard crime data and stats," he says. "To combat that directly is to bring more people downtown. Living downtown, working downtown, commuting downtown—this is a critical piece of infrastructure that enables that, like no other infrastructure in our inner city, without question."
The underground work is expected to commence in the coming weeks, but the overall phase one of the project is expected to take two years to complete.