Beverly Street underpass project slated for end of November completion

Roughly eight months after work began, the Beverly Street underpass project is close to being completed.

City of Cambridge staff have confirmed the construction is on pace to be wrapped up by the end of November.

The scope of the work included the building of a new multi-use trail, a pedestrian underpass structure under the Canadian Pacific Rail embankment, reconstruction of the asphalt, road base and sub-base, concrete sidewalks, and a concrete curb and gutter.

The replacement of watermains, sanitary sewers and storm sewers is also part of the project.

The goal is to improve safety for residents who use the area, cyclists and motorists.

According to the city, the project is on budget at a total $12.6 million, $10.7 million of which was for contract costs. The contract cost announced last December was $1.4 million more than what was expected.

The city believes half of the overrun was caused by a stalled response to agreements from the Canadian Pacific Kansas City due to an error, which delayed the tendering of the project by one year.

Initially, the work was supposed to be done in two stages back in 2021, beginning with the pedestrian underpass and multi-use trail installation, followed by the remaining road reconstruction and infrastructure renewal works in 2023.

But when tender results for the 2021 project closed at nearly 75 per cent over the available budget, the city decided to defer the work until 2023 as a single combined project.

Concerns about the narrow road under the bridge prompted local resident Bill Walker to advocate for the work.

"I'm the guy that stirred the hornets nest in the beginning," Walker said back at the groundbreaking in April of bringing his concerns to Cambridge city council.

"I could go home at lunch because my work was so close, so there was a potential of four times a day I could go through here. Somebody's going to get killed and we're very fortunate it hasn't happened."

The location is in Ward 4 and councillor Ross Earnshaw said he had been contacted consistently about safety concerns with the underpass.

"It's a long awaited project," Earnshaw said when the work started.

"A lot of constituents have approached me since I was elected in 2022 to ask when this would happen."