Construction of a stormwater infrastructure project in Windsor’s west end will begin in October — with a targeted completion date in November 2025.
But the mayor and city officials say that once the Prince Road storm sewer outlet is finished, an estimated 3,500 properties will have better flood protection.
“It’s short-term pain for long-term gain, and it’s material improvement as we move forward to implement our sewer master plan,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens in an announcement on Tuesday.
The $7.9 million-dollar project is part of a bigger, multi-phase, multi-year strategy under the city’s sewer master plan.
That plan was devised in response to the extreme flooding events the region faced in 2016 and 2017.
Dilkens said city council is in unanimous agreement on “the need to be more climate resilient.”
“We agree on the need to provide more support in accordance with this master plan, because we know the impact that it has on a significant number of residents throughout our city.”
Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante shared similar thoughts.
“This is very important work. It’s, in my view, the bread-and-butter work that cities do,” he said.
“In today’s day and age, it’s absolutely necessary as our climate changes and as we’re dealing with these new realities.”
Despite the name of the project, the city’s infrastructure services department says traffic on Prince Road shouldn’t be greatly affected.
David Simpson, commissioner of infrastructure services, said the year-long work is being timed to minimize disruption of major corridors.
Simpson noted that this phase of the plan “culminates over four decades of work that’s been done on this.”
“This is not small infrastructure. These are massive pipes… that will definitely be able to handle some of the intense major storm events… This is really going to augment the flood resiliency in the area.”
