Victoria Street West construction project ahead of schedule

Victoria Street West. (via Dairai Mutandiro)

The Victoria Street West Improvements Project, which began this past spring, is moving along nicely.

During a media tour of the construction site last Friday (July 26), project manager Alistair Elliot with Extreme Excavating says crews are ahead of schedule.

(via Dairai Mutandiro)

“The biggest challenge was to keep the corridor flowing with the day-to-day traffic,” he says. “There are 28 businesses that we’re directly affecting, so that’s been our biggest challenge and I think, for the most part, we’re doing pretty good at that.”

Extreme Excavating Ltd. received the $13-million contract earlier this year.

So how exactly how has Elliot's team managed to be farther along than anticipated?

“Just our aggressive workforce. We work seven days (a week),” he says, adding there's an average of 42 employees on site every day. “We had two shifts: night shift work from Sunday night through till Thursday night, (and) day shift was six days a week. That was our biggest way of getting ahead of schedule.”

Elliot notes the night shifts allow his crew to do more work because most of the businesses in the area are closed. 

Ryan Maalerud, the city's capital projects supervisor, tells KamloopsMatters the Victoria Street West Improvements project should be finished by summer 2020. The four-phase project was originally estimated to take two years.

Maalerud adds phase one should open by mid-August.

The city will now be working on curbs, gutters and line painting. For weekly project updates, click HERE.