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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There's light at the end of the tunnel for those frustrated with months of congestion due to construction work on 52 Street as city crews are expected to pour concrete for sidewalks there today.

Months of traffic headaches on a one-block section of 52 Street may finally be coming to an end as city crews are expected to finish sidewalks and street-paving over the next few days. - Sara Wilson/NNSL photo

The one-block section of road from Veterans Memorial Drive to Franklin Avenue has been intermittently blocked off to traffic since the wrecking ball came to the old Gallery Building last year.

The city is in the midst of a "streetscaping" beautification project for the area, much like the one completed on 50 Street between Franklin Avenue and Veterans Memorial Drive in 2009. The city set aside $450,000 for streetscaping this year on 52 Street and Old Airport Road. Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the 52 Street project is on time and on budget and will be worth the inconveniences caused by the roadwork.

"They always finish by the end of the September unless it rains a whole bunch," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

"Everything is on a schedule and everything is chugging along."

According to Van Tighem, once crews pour the concrete it will take a day or two more to complete the street paving.

"They are pretty fast. The project will be done with some minor landscaping stuff that will be finished next spring," Tighem said.

Of the $450,000 available for the beautification project along 52 Street, and Old Airport Road, half of the price tag was donated by Dundee Real Estate Investment as a community initiative, leaving the city to foot just $225,000 of the total bill.

"Half of the budget for the streetscaping part came from the people that are building the (new) Gallery Building at the end of the street," Tighem said. "It was a community project."

The project wasn't without it's headaches.

"There was one little squawk when we first started," Van Tighem said. "The guys were a little bit over-eager and removed the access way to the theatre, but that was fixed the same day, so it worked out alright."

With the results almost ready to speak for themselves, residents will soon have their chance to see what all the waiting was for.

"It like any project, it comes with inconveniences but it's a community project," Van Tighem said.

"The feedback on the consultation of the (city's) general plan was everybody has been talking about how nice it is to have trees back in the downtown and the streetscaping. I think in the last two or three years we've planted over 700 trees in the city."

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