Little Italy is going to be a lot nicer to stroll along next summer, says the city’s project manager for the Preston Street reconstruction.
"“What we are showing tonight are the construction blueprints of what the street is going to look after we make $30 million worth of improvements above ground and below ground,” says Ravi Mehta.
He says the city wants to beautify Little Italy. “The sidewalks are going to be much wider, there will be a lot more patio space for restaurants, made of concrete and cobblestone and there will be fancy lights for pedestrians, as well as fancy street furniture,” he says.
“One of the biggest changes is that Preston Street will have more parking spaces. Also, it will be transformed from a four-lane street to a two-lane street,” says Mehta.
The city plans to hire a total of three contracting companies to do the construction work.
So far, the city has only hired one company. Ottawa Greenbelt has been hired for a salary of $6 million to renovate the underground water main and above ground streetscape from Laurel Street to the Queensway, along Preston Street.
Ottawa Greenbelt is doing the water main repair themselves and contracting out the work to be done on the streetscape to another company.
Mehta says there will be two other companies working on Preston Street. One company will work on the area from Albert Street to Spruce Street. The other company will work on the area from Beech Street to Carling Avenue.
“What we are doing right now is posting the details of the job and waiting for offers from contracting companies. We’ll take the cheapest offer,” says Mehta.
Preston Street is being renovated because of the defective six-inch-wide water main running below it. The city is installing a sixteen-inch-wide water main, to prevent the combined sewage from flooding local businesses’ basements.
“It got really gross. Combined sewage means toilet water and rainwater together. Imagine that, flooding people’s basements on an average of every two years,” says Mehta.
Construction is scheduled to start in April 2009, and will finish in the spring of 2010.