Hunt Club contract a go

In September, a motion passed by council directed staff not to award Phase I contracts until receiving confirmation from the province that future funding would be coming down the pipe, and set a deadline of Oct. 1 to await word before sending the issue back to transportation committee. Provincial officials, however, including Ottawa-Orléans MPP Phil McNeely, encouraged the city to act in good faith, while explaining Hunt Club funding would be subject to the budget process in coming months.

The most recent motion – which passed earlier this month at committee and at council Wednesday, Oct. 14 – authorizes staff to award the construction contract for the extension’s first phase in order to meet spring 2011 deadlines on infrastructure stimulus funding. With the motion now rubber-stamped, staff will also start work assessing existing and needed sound fences along Hawthorne Road to the Hunt Club Bridge and begin “actively” seeking funding from all levels of government. A report on funding is expected back in three months, meanwhile, with secured backing a condition to roll ahead with work.

Though the province announced in July a $1.44-million funding commitment towards design and property purchase for the project’s first Hawthorne-to-Russell phase, the question of whether money will be available for Hunt Club’s second step – stretching from Russell to Highway 417, including the interchange – is what initially raised concerns for city staff.