Reconnecting a crucial link: Timmins receives $3 million for road upgrades.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

Notorious for its crater-sized potholes and heavy traffic, Algonquin Boulevard in Timmins--which doubles as provincial Highway 101--will finally get some relief this summer with the start of a $95.5-million reconstruction project.

In February, engineering firm AECOM presented city council with a preliminary design study that details the work that needs to be done on the 21.2-kilometre stretch of road, along which about 25,000 vehicles travel daily.

After years of neglect--in part because of a lack of available funding--Timmins Mayor Steve Black said he wasn't surprised at the hefty price tag.

"We knew it was going to be a very large project and definitely up in the tens of millions of dollars, so I won't say it was shocking or anything," Black said. "We knew it was going to be probably the largest construction project we've done in quite some time."

The extensive plan includes replacing underground infrastructure, repaving, and improving traffic flow in areas that tend to become more congested during peak hours.

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The project got a welcome boost on March 31 when the province announced Timmins would receive $3 million through the Connecting Links program--the largest available amount through the provincial funding initiative.

The money will be used to reconstruct a 2-kilometre section of the road running east from Bruce Avenue.

The Connecting Links program will make available $20 million in 2016-2017, $25 million in 2017-2018, and $30 million per year by 2018-2019.

Black called the Timmins announcement "great news," which will help get the 10-year, 10-phase reconstruction project started.

"Our phase one of the project is going be a $4.5-million project, so to get $3 million from the province will cover about two-thirds of the project, and we'll cover the final third of the project," he said.

"Obviously, we still have a lot more to go, with another $90-million-plus on the table, to still solve how we're going to finance and try to come to some sort of long-term partnership with the upper levels of government for funding."

Because the reconstruction work had been put off for so long, replacement of much of the infrastructure is crucial at this point, and it's unlikely the project can be whittled down to a more manageable level, Black said.

The $95.5-million project includes the very...