It must be spring! St. John's preparing to dig up Water Street again

The City of St. John's says it's doing everything it can to make sure the Big Digisn't a big disruption to pedestrians, drivers and local businesses.

This multi-yearprojectremoving old, crumbling waterand sewer infrastructure under Water Street moves east this year. Work was done last year fromthe intersection of Queen and Water streets toWaldegrave Street and Bishop's Cove. City officials say that work cost about $4-million dollars.

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This year work crews willmove furthereast, workingfrom Bishop'sCove to Ayre's Cove. This phase is also expected to cost about $4-million dollars.

St. John's Coun.Dave Lane says thecity has been consulting with residents and businesses, asking a simple question: "How can we do this important construction with as little impact on business as possible?"

Lane saidsome steps they took last year worked.

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"We put in incentives and fines for the contractor to say we've got to be done by Canada Day and we did it.They had a few little tweaks at the end and they were in fact a couple of days beyond in work and they did pay a small fine. So it worked," said Lane.

City officials say the contractor was fined only a few thousand dollars for being about a day and half over schedule but that also meant it didn't get a $50,000 bonus for meeting the deadline.

Lane says work on Phase 2 of the multi-year project is scheduled to begin in early April and will take three months.

"This year we're going to have a real short diversion down to Harbour Drive, off of Water Street, for that section, which means if you are going east, you keep going down Water Street and if you are going west, you just divert around," said Lane.

At least one downtown businessis praising the city.

"I think the city has worked with us. We've had many meetings and they've listened and we are working together. I think this is going to be positive. I think it is going to be OK," said Gayle Deckerof Next Clothing Companyon Water Street.

She rejects the idea that the work will force some businesses to close their doors.

"We've been downtownfor 22 years. I don't think it will make or break us. I think our customers will come downtown. We just want to make sure that it's not as negative as it sounds and we're all open for business," said Decker.

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