St. John’s city council voted on Monday to allow overnight construction on Kenmount Road.
The Polina Road realignment and Kenmount Road storm sewer upgrade work has caused traffic snarls and delays for some time.
The contractor asked council for an extension to the noise bylaw, allowing them to work in the area overnight past 11 p.m. in an effort to clew up more quickly.
Bursey Excavating & Development Inc. is doing the work.
Coun. Maggie Burton and Coun. Ian Froude voted against the extension, while all others present voted in favour.
“It’s been a tremendous disruption to Kenmount Road – to the commuters on Kenmount Road, to the businesses on Kenmount Road, and certainly to the residents in the Polina Road area, Viking Road and Neptune Road – that area – so, we want to get this clewed up as quick as we can, and this (extension) should help speed that up,” said Mayor Danny Breen.
Burton suggested providing the extension for only a certain number of nights per week “to balance the needs of residents in the area with the needs of drivers in the city,” but her suggestion was not taken up by other councillors.
“I don’t feel like I can support in good conscience an extension to the noise bylaw that can see work theoretically happening every night until the work is done,” she told The Telegram after the vote was made in favour of the extension.
Burton acknowledged it’s frustrating to be stuck in traffic and recognized that the work needs to be completed before winter.
“I do understand that the contractors want to get all the good days used up, but that can have a real impact on a family that is up every night for a week with, you know, got to get their kids up to go to school and it’s really loud. So, because of the nature of nighttime work it gets amplified because there’s not as much background noise going on through the city. As a mother of children, I know that that can be really disruptive.”
Breen said the contractor just “wanted some flexibility” and indicated they would not work overnight every night of the week.
“It’s going to be when they’re in the middle of something, and the weather is co-operating.”
Pride Neba is a Memorial University student who lives on Viking Road.
He said he has mixed feelings about the overnight work.
While he says the realignment is a good thing, he is concerned about the noise keeping him awake at night.
“That might be a problem,” he said, but given council has already voted, he added, “I have to deal with it either way.”
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
