City to Drill Boreholes to Prepare to Widen John Counter Blvd in Spring

Published on: 2016/12/01 - in Releases

Motorists and cyclists will notice crews drilling boreholes along John Counter Boulevard between Indian Road and Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard starting next week.

The work will be completed on the shoulders of roadway during peak hours, but there will be some lane restrictions during non-peak hours.

“The work to widen John Counter is on time and on budget and is proceeding according to plan,” says Mark Campbell, the City of Kingston’s manager, construction.

The City is collecting soil samples for testing as it prepares to widen this stretch of John Counter Boulevard starting this spring – Phase 4 of the larger project to widen John Counter and build a bridge over the CN Rail tracks.

Phase 3 of John Counter widening project involves building the embankment for the bridge with hundreds of truck-loads of rock fill. This work will also continue in early spring of 2017.

The embankment must be allowed to settle for several months between each level of fill.  Monitoring equipment measures the settlement and levels of fill will continue to be added until the peak of the embankment is eight metres above ground level and has settled.  Then the bridge will be built. The building of the bridge, the fifth and final phase of the project, is expected to begin in 2018-19.

For more on the project to widen John Counter Boulevard, go to CityofKingston.ca/JCB.


Release source: City of Kingston
Photo
: Large drill being used to bore holes for shoring piles. Source: Washington State Dept of Transportation (cc)