Discussions

I'm just wondering if Kirkcaldy is still closed? The corner of 18th and Kirkcaldy still has a sign saying its closed, but was it not suppose to be completed before school started? I'm just curious as its out of my way to drive all the way to 18th and down to the corral centre and trying to cross 18th at Braecrest is very difficuly most of the time.  
 
If it is still closed do they have an estimated date they're going to open it?

says Kirkcaldy at Knowlton is still closed. You can access Knowlton, but no further. Scheduled to re-open October 19th

You can access kirkaldy from Knowlton. I live up off of braecrest and have gone down to the corral centre from Knowlton in the late couple of weeks.

And still not done? Wow. How long DOES it take to fix one road? Almost 6 months seems extreme. But, I digress ...

Construction for roads is important, in this case I think they were replacing a water line, but the amount of time it is taking is absolutely ridiculous. They will be lucky to be done before the snow falls. It has literally been ALL summer that Kirkcaldy has been closed.

The_Real_Deal said "And still not done? Wow. How long DOES it take to fix one road? Almost 6 months seems extreme. But, I digress ... "

Who works in road construction says - "yeah right - try at least a month away. IF they work faster"  
 
Manitoba is so backwards when it comes to road construction. Take for example Highway #1 near Elie - drove past this section many times through the summer and noticed many Friday afternoons workers had all left by 3 pm, and did not work weekends. Now that we are running out of time to get it done before snow flies, they are working longer hours, we even noticed them working Sunday well after dark.  
 
Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan have it right. Private companies are in charge of the process - the government does not get involved past the bidding stage except to make sure the winning tender keeps to their time frame. On top of this - if the workmanship is shoddy - the companies are held accountable and made to fix it at their cost.  
 
In Alberta, BC and Ontario - they have rules as to doing construction work during the day as well. For example on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary - workers are not allowed to begin work until after 6 pm, and they must have the roads open (within reason) before 6 am.  
 
Just driving through that mess of St James st in Winnipeg last weekend too, just makes no sense the way these projects are executed. They have 50+ businesses that have relocated or closed completely and again, no work in progess weekends or Friday afternoons. And that is both Provincial AND city jurisdictions - neither make any sense.  
 
Manitoba is bass-ackwards.

As has already been mentioned in this thread, through access on Kirkcaldy Drive is anticipated to be reinstated in the next few weeks.  
 
However, it should be noted that the ongoing work along Kirkcaldy Drive is far more substantial than just a road construction.  
 
At $4.4 million, the project is a significant piece of our larger flood mitigation strategy and will allow for the redirection of storm water from Brandon’s North Hill that previously travelled to the Assiniboine River through four separate outfalls to, instead, drain through a single outfall.  
 
The new outfall design is made up of a large, 8-foot square pipe that will carry water to the river. The design includes an overflow feature for heavy rains that then directs some water to a nearby retention pond. Following a rain event, the pond is then gradually pumped dry and made ready for the next rainfall. To accommodate pumping, the pipe structure contains a pit and a pumping pad where several large pumps may be located. There is also a large gate chamber that can be closed to prevent river water from backing into the storm sewer.  
 
Construction for this project has been happening on three fronts - retention pond excavation and dike relocation along Conservation Drive, work on the outfall and connecting storm sewer, and installation of numerous sections of storm sewer pipe in the area.  
 
The outfall structure is anticipated to be functionally ready by mid-November, with the final completion of the project to be in March 2016.

foxtrot11 said "    The_Real_Deal said "And still not done? Wow. How long DOES it take to fix one road? Almost 6 months seems extreme. But, I digress ... " Who works in road construction says - "yeah right - try at least a month away. IF they work faster"     Manitoba is so backwards when it comes to road construction. Take for example Highway #1 near Elie - drove past this section many times through the summer and noticed many Friday afternoons workers had all left by 3 pm, and did not work weekends. Now that we are running out of time to get it done before snow flies, they are working longer hours, we even noticed them working Sunday well after dark.     Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan have it right. Private companies are in charge of the process - the government does not get involved past the bidding stage except to make sure the winning tender keeps to their time frame. On top of this - if the workmanship is shoddy - the companies are held accountable and made to fix it at their cost.     In Alberta, BC and Ontario - they have rules as to doing construction work during the day as well. For example on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary - workers are not allowed to begin work until after 6 pm, and they must have the roads open (within reason) before 6 am.     Just driving through that mess of St James st in Winnipeg last weekend too, just makes no sense the way these projects are executed. They have 50+ businesses that have relocated or closed completely and again, no work in progess weekends or Friday afternoons. And that is both Provincial AND city jurisdictions - neither make any sense.     Manitoba is bass-ackwards. "

Government tenders the jobs and the private contractors bid on a job with a quote and time frame to have the work completed by. The contractor can work as much or as little as they want to complete the job within the specified time period. Most have more than one job on the go. If they miss the deadline they set to have work finished they face monetary penalties for each day over it takes to complete.  
 
During the summer months after 3pm on Fridays is peak traffic time with people traveling and most construction (not all) stops to avoid long delays and reduce the amount of accidents that could result because of construction. People do enough complaining about not being able to get to their cabin fast enough on a Friday as is without further delays.  
 
Don't worry the roads will be finished and open soon enough and then we can all complain about how poor they are and how lazy the guys in the winter are when it comes to snow clearing.

Keep in mind that Kirkcaldy is a city road not a provincial road. Only city crews (and/or) private companies would be working on it. They may not have as many resources as MB Highways does, and to the person commenting on Highway worker hours they generally work from 7am-3pm which is a regular 8 hour work day. They just finish earlier: but I do agree that Kirkcaldy has taken WAAAAAY too long and should be finished up soon if they have any hopes of being done before first snowfall.

foxtrot11 said "    The_Real_Deal said "And still not done? Wow. How long DOES it take to fix one road? Almost 6 months seems extreme. But, I digress ... " Who works in road construction says - "yeah right - try at least a month away. IF they work faster"     Manitoba is so backwards when it comes to road construction. Take for example Highway #1 near Elie - drove past this section many times through the summer and noticed many Friday afternoons workers had all left by 3 pm, and did not work weekends. Now that we are running out of time to get it done before snow flies, they are working longer hours, we even noticed them working Sunday well after dark.     Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan have it right. Private companies are in charge of the process - the government does not get involved past the bidding stage except to make sure the winning tender keeps to their time frame. On top of this - if the workmanship is shoddy - the companies are held accountable and made to fix it at their cost.     In Alberta, BC and Ontario - they have rules as to doing construction work during the day as well. For example on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary - workers are not allowed to begin work until after 6 pm, and they must have the roads open (within reason) before 6 am.     Just driving through that mess of St James st in Winnipeg last weekend too, just makes no sense the way these projects are executed. They have 50+ businesses that have relocated or closed completely and again, no work in progess weekends or Friday afternoons. And that is both Provincial AND city jurisdictions - neither make any sense.     Manitoba is bass-ackwards. "

What you described in 3rd and 4th paragraph of your comment is exactly what happens here in Manitoba too. The government does all the engineering and planning, then puts the tender out for the work, private companies then bid on the work and the lowest bid gets the work in most cases as long as the company is fully capable of completing the work. After that tender process the government have project managers and engineers that supervise the work to make sure the work is progressing and being done right and the private contractors are following the timeline. Its no different then any other province.  
 
Over the summer there was construction on the perimeter highway around Winnipeg and the work was done over night.  
 
Sorry but if you don't know your info, don't comment.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edited by The_Young_Man, 2015-10-07 17:25:01

What about all the other streets in Brandon this company has worked on in Brandon this year? Not one street has been completed yet, pretty pathetic.

georgejohnson said "What about all the other streets in Brandon this company has worked on in Brandon this year? Not one street has been completed yet, pretty pathetic. "

Is anyone actually reading what the City stated now or at the beginning of the project? This was never a project to just "fix" the street. It's all underground work that happens to go underneath Kirkcaldy. It's a huge project that was projected to take months to complete. Get all the facts before you start complaining.

It wasnt road repair... they are laying a bunch of pipe and such for drainage... and yes its closed to traffic from Knowlton to 4th st n..... it has taken forever, and feels twice as long because the detour went right past our house which meant speeders and hearing tons of brakes squeal because people either didnt see the yield or thought an additional 15 seconds was too much time added to travel... It was crappy when Kirkcaldy was closed from Patterson and the detour was Braecrest

We are pleased to confirm that as of the afternoon of October 14th, Kirkcaldy Drive is now open to through traffic.  
 
There will be street sweepers out today (October 15th)to clean the street of construction debris.  
 
Please note, dike construction is still underway on the south side of Kirkcaldy Drive, from 4th St North to Knowlton Drive, so please drive with caution in the area.