Ontario Construction News staff writer
With road, water and sewer work underway, the City of Sarnia is expecting another year of aggressive investment into infrastructure renewal.
Work will includes a record-setting $4.1-million Road Rehabilitation Program alongside road, water and sewer work including:
- Combined sewer separation (including water, sewer and road) on Ontario Street; Johnston Street; Queen Street; College Avenue; and George Street
- Pumping Station 16 capacity upgrades for flood mitigation
- Full reconstruction including road, water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer on Copland Road and Kathleen Avenue
- Phase 1 work on Mitton Street combined sewer separation and reconstruction
The plan marks a continuation of a multi-year focus on infrastructure renewal.
Over the previous five years the city has committed $262 million to capital projects, a 34 per cent increase in spending for road resurfacing, shoreline protection, flood mitigation, pumping station upgrades, combined sewer separation and water/sewer replacement.
From 2023 to 2026 across Sarnia, crews have replaced or installed:
- 17.4 km of watermains
- 7.7 km of sanitary sewer
- 3.5 km of forcemain
- 6.7 km of storm sewer
In that same period, 89.2 km of road lane has been resurfaced and 43.7 km of lane has been rebuilt, 13.3 km of multi-use path and 6.5 km of bike lanes have been installed.
“It will certainly be a busy summer as we continue this effort to renew infrastructure, roads, water and sewer infrastructure continue to be a priority with the support of Council as identified in our Asset Management Plan,” said David Jackson, general manager of engineering and operations. “It can be disruptive at points, but investments of resident tax and rate dollars such as these eliminate the need for costly repairs and strengthen infrastructure against flooding while ensuring our residents can count on roads to get them where they need to go; on clean drinking water reliably provided at the tap; and the safe removal of wastewater from neighbourhoods.”
