A spokesperson for the Rural Municipality of Hanover says reconstructing McKenzie Avenue, south of Mitchell will cost a whole lot more than originally thought.

One mile of Road 35N, also known as McKenzie Avenue is being reconstructed from Road 31E to Road 32E, which is southeast of Mitchell. The winning tender for this project was $334,000.

Works and Operations Manager Wes Fehr says that road has had some serious issues in recent years with very soft conditions. In fact, there have been occasions where that portion of roadway has been closed for safety reasons.

Fehr says shortly after beginning the project, crews realized there are very poor sub soil conditions underneath. As a result, those soils must be removed from the roadbed.

"That's going to cause an overage on the whole project," explains Fehr. "But at the same time we want to make sure that the road is constructed proper, the first time through, and that we will have a good product in the end."

It is not clear how much more this project will now cost.

According to Fehr, it appears back in the day this road was built overtop a bog.

"It looks like back when the road was originally built, it may have been just a few loads of some material on top of what was taken out of the ditch and just put on top and called that a road," suggests Fehr.

He says it is reassuring to know what was causing the soft conditions and that once the project is complete, they won't see those problems again.

Fehr suggests the project will probably take another two weeks. He notes they are holding back as much traffic as possible, but adds they also must maintain local traffic because of the residents living along that stretch.

Meanwhile, one mile of Road 30E has been reconstructed from Road 35N to Highway 52, which is west of Mitchell. Fehr says there are a few loose ends to tie up but he says it is back open to traffic and the results are impressive.

And, half a mile along Road 20E still needs to be rebuilt north of Provincial Road 311 and west of Highway 59. Fehr guesses construction might start in early to mid-August.

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