Portion of downtown Main Street may close for District water and sewer replacement this fall

The Town of Huntsville is working to make disruption as minimal as possible when the District of Muskoka begins its proposed water, sewer and storm sewer line replacements beneath a portion of Main Street this fall.

The project, tentatively slated by the District to begin in September, would see Main Street West from Lorne Street to Centre Street closed for the duration of the two-month project, said Steve Hernen, Acting Director of Operations and Protective Services for the Town of Huntsville at the March 1 General Committee meeting.

“All three of (the lines) are spread across the road,” said Hernen. “We’ve met with them to see if they could do a single-lane closure but just where the services are they are looking at, as they call it, a building edge to building edge excavation.” Hernen said that pedestrian traffic could be maintained in that area but that the road would need to be closed to vehicular traffic.

The Town is working on a plan to reroute vehicles, with the most likely solution being two one-way routes that run to the north and south of Main Street. Westbound traffic would flow from Main street, up Centre Street North, go west on Caroline Street past Huntsville Public School and then south on Lorne Street to reconnect with Main Street West. Eastbound traffic would turn south on Lorne Street, then east on Minerva Street, then north on Centre Street to reconnect with Main Street East.

Hernen said that Town staff will return to committee with requests for those temporary one-lane routes and parking restrictions on those roads, as well as “a discussion with council to see what the appetite is for a 24/7 construction schedule. The only way the schedule can be reduced from two months is if they work longer hours. I know that would affect the noise bylaw.” He added that doing the work in stages isn’t a good option because it would just result in a longer construction schedule.

Town staff have notified the District that truck routes will need to be considered as will the addition of extra crossing guards to ensure that students at Huntsville Public School can get there safely.

Councillor Brian Thompson suggested that the timing of the project should be negotiable. “September is very, very important to our town; October less so. There’s no reason why that job couldn’t be done in October and November. We have pushed the District on other occasions to go into that time frame because of the impact on the town.”

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