Construction on the Highway 97 railway overpass on 99 Mile Hill remains on schedule, despite a major setback to the original plan.
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure project supervisor Gordon Harvey said the task started out as a relatively simple concrete overlay.
"[The plan was] to take off the top of the concrete, take out all the bad concrete and put in new concrete. Well, we tried to do that, and it was so rotten the whole bridge deck fell out."
This resulted in the need for a completely new bridge deck, but Harvey says thanks to the hard work of Neelco Builders Ltd., the project has stayed on target for completion.
The contract was to run from April 18 to June 23, he notes.
"Because we happen to have the best contractor in the province, I think we're going to be able to meet that [deadline], or it's going to be close."
That's good news for everyone concerned, from those sitting in the traffic to the ministry he adds.
"This top-notch contractor is doing an A-1 job," Harvey says, adding Neelco Builders owner John Neels and his crew are getting almost triple the work done in about the same time.
He notes the crew has been putting in long hours, working some days from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"He's pulled in people from all over, and equipment and he's just going right at it."