Ypres and Gladstone Avenues Undergo Upgrades

Mayor Drew Dilkens and representatives of ENWIN Utilities and the Windsor Utilities Commission (WUC) announced the start of the City of Windsor’s $4.6-million investment to rebuild Ypres and Gladstone avenues in historic Walkerville.

Reconstruction of the two roads began by Sterling Ridge Group Inc. on June 9 and is expected to be completed by November 30. The project will add nearly two kilometres of new roads, sidewalks, streetlights and watermains.

The scope of work includes the following:

  • Building a thicker, stronger asphalt road on Ypres Avenue, from Forest Avenue to Walker Road, in anticipation of a planned new east-west bus route that is expected to run along Ypres in the near future as part of the Transit Master Plan;
  • Installing new sidewalks on the north and south sides of Ypres;
  • Installing new LED street lights; and
  • Building a new road and replacing the watermain along Gladstone Avenue, from Tecumseh Road East to Ypres Avenue.

As a collector road that serves as one of the few uninterrupted links between Howard Avenue and Walker Road, Ypres gets about 7,000 vehicles daily.

This road reconstruction project is being undertaken in partnership with the Windsor Utilities Commission, which is paying the cost of replacing 1.2 kilometres of near century-old cast iron watermains on Ypres Avenue and another 750 metres on Gladstone Avenue. ENWIN, which manages WUC, has committed to replacing 18.9 kilometres of aging cast iron watermains across the city of Windsor in 2021 as part of the ongoing watermain renewal program to replace old cast iron watermains, including all publicly owned lead service pipes, by 2027.

The 2021 Ypres-Gladstone reconstruction project builds on more than $6 million in improvements completed in the area within the past few years, including the following:

  • $2.2 million Gladstone Avenue sewer rehabilitation project completed from Wyandotte Street to Riverside Drive in 2019.
  • $1.6 million Memorial Drive sewer and road rehabilitation, from Vimy Avenue to east of Marentette Avenue, in 2019.
  • $2.5 million construction of the 6,500–square-foot W.F. Chisholm Branch of the Windsor Public Library in 2017

In 2021 Windsor City Council approved a 10-year, $1.6-billion capital budget plan that invests in public infrastructure to build our city up. This year, 60 percent of the capital budget is committed to fixing and improving Windsor’s roads and sewers, investing $50.2 million in roads and $51.2 million toward upgrading the city’s sewers.

Quotes:

“When the Ypres Avenue public works project is completed this November, it will conclude the final phase of the full reconstruction of this vital east-west collector road from Walker Road all the way to Howard Avenue. It also paves the way for a proposed new bus route planned for Walkerville as part of the modernization and expansion of Windsor’s public transportation system as envisioned in our transit master plan.”
– Mayor Drew Dilkens

“Over the past five years, WUC has invested approximately $74 million in watermain replacement projects across Windsor. We are proud to be part of a continuing partnership with the City of Windsor to ensure maximum benefits to our ratepayers, through ongoing improvements to our infrastructure.”
– Garry Rossi, Vice President, Water Operations, ENWIN Utilities