Sault Ste. Marie city council has agreed to consider reconstructing the existing southerly part of Sackville Road when Sackville is extended north to Third Line.
As SooToday reported last week, the Ontario government has ponied up $5.3 million toward the cost of the Sackville extension.
At Monday's council meeting, councillors agreed to also assign staff to prepare a report on whether the existing 1.5-kilometre Sackville surface from Northern Avenue to Mary Avenue should be reconstructed in conjunction with the extension.
"Anytime we can get a road repaved in Ward 3, I am all for it," Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo told her council colleagues.
"I think our constituents will be quite happy. People in Sackville tend to live with some craters in the road, so this would be a great investment and will fit right in with our plan," Caputo said.
"We do need to thank our provincial counterparts for the funding for the extension, and Ross Romano's office," said Ward 3's Ron Zagordo, who initiated the idea.
"I think it makes a lot of sense that we will have the northern portion of Sackville Road pretty modernized when the extension is in there.
"And with the potential of increased traffic and a major thoroughfare in that area, I think it would be wise that the southern portion also receive services that will accommodate that traffic," Zagordo said.
How long will the work take?
"The 'in conjunction' part of this motion, I think is open to staff's interpretation," said Mayor Matthew Shoemaker.
"I don't think we'd be able to get it all paved in a single year, but in and around the timeframe of the Sackville Road extension would be what I would hope to see reported back on, so not necessarily to be taken as all one project, in my opinion," the mayor said.
The Sackville Road extension is expected to be a two- or three-year project starting this summer.