King Street to undergo construction, again

Uptown work is to improve streetscape, infrastructure

WATERLOO — King Street in uptown Waterloo is about to undergo construction once more, but this time it will be in smaller chunks and for a shorter period of time.

The Region of Waterloo and city’s joint project to spruce up the streetscape on King is set to begin this spring.

It is anticipated the work will be finished in one construction season.

“After the construction that has happened the last two summers, we asked for faster construction,” Coun. Melissa Durrell said at a Waterloo committee meeting Monday.

It’s a $10-million venture with costs shared by the city and region. The project has been on the books since 2015.

On Monday, Waterloo’s finance and strategic planning committee approved an extra $919,000 toward the project due to expensive bids received by the region.

In a letter to the city, the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area said it endorsed the move.

“While we appreciate the constraints on budgets we feel strongly that this project should be properly funded and move forward as planned.”

The work will take place along King and will also include a small portion, about 200 meters, of Erb Street as well.

This project will include road reconstruction, replacement of underground storm and sanitary sewers as well as water mains.

It will also see the addition of segregated bike lanes, wider sidewalks, new traffic lights and improved lighting along uptown’s main drag.

Durrell stressed the importance of this project’s tight construction schedule to uptown business owners who have already endured two summers of heavy road work due to the region’s light trail transit project.

But the BIA is looking forward to a spruced up King Street.

They have also asked the city to look into the possibility of thematic lighting uptown in the future.

Work can begin as early as this month after final approvals from the region expected to happen later this week.

Waterloo staff told council on Monday that this construction work will take place in smaller sections so it will be less disruptive.