Overnight LRT construction approved for uptown Waterloo

Overnight LRT construction can begin immediately after Waterloo city council approved a noise exemption for GrandLinq to extend their working day to 24 hours.

Council voted in favour of the noise exemption during Monday night's meeting.

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The area of work includes:

• Erb Street West from Father David Bauer Drive to King Street.
• King Street from Erb Street to Union Street.
• Caroline Street from Erb Street West to Allen Street West.
• Allen Street West from Caroline Street to King Street.

"This request was received in order to accelerate the construction activities and increase the ability to work towards the original completion date," the city said in a release following the meeting.

The city has said work can take place between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. until December 31, but the public must be given notice before overnight work begins, and overnight construction can't take place more than six nights in a row.

"All efforts will be made to pre-stage work, materials and equipment before 7 p.m. so that noise impacts can be limited through the night," the release said.

Work was to be done before Christmas season

Construction work on King Street in uptown Waterloo came to an abrupt halt on March 11, when workers discovered wood that waslater determined to be a historic corduroy road. An archaeologist completed documenting the road on April 19 and reported back to the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and Culture. Later that week, workers began to remove the logs.

In March, Avril Fisken, manager of communications for GrandLinq, told CBC News it was unclear how the discovery would impact construction. Last month, she said it was possible extra shifts would be required to make up for lost time.

• LRT construction unearths more corduroy road at King and Northfield

Store owners have been told work would be completed by November 15 in time for the holiday shopping season.

Andy Cox, owner of King Street Cycles, told CBC News in March he was unsure if that timeline was realistic.

"I don't know how they can stick to their November timeline when they find things like this corduroy road," Cox said. "It's obviously going to take some time to deal with, yet they won't admit to having to bump their end timeline."