Is this the Sault’s new favourite Instagram spot?

The new entrance court to the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre is definitely Instagram-worthy.

Saultites can now pose there with their favourite city councillors.

We can hold up signs telling them how to do their jobs.

Or you can just stand there on the vertiginous new stairway, making like you're Joaquin Phoenix in The Joker.

The new metal steps replace badly compromised concrete stairs.

The project is almost entirely complete and Tessa Vecchio, the city's corporate communications officer, tells SooToday that the stairs and front entrance are now usable after being out of service for many months.

Carl Rumiel, director of engineering, says the only loose end relates to a new accessibility elevator, contained in the large white new structure shown at the right of the third image in the photo gallery above, taken by SooToday's Alex Flood earlier today.

"The project requires a TSSA inspection of the elevator. This is scheduled for Thursday this week. Pending approval of the elevator inspection, the project will be complete," Rumiel says.

TSSA is the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, mandated by the Ontario government to regulate the safety of amusement devices, boilers and pressure vessels, elevating devices, fuels, operating engineers, and ski lifts.

Ontario Concrete Finishing (Soo) Ltd. won a $4-million contract to upgrade the civic centre's front entrance plaza.

The project also included exterior waterproofing of an underground garage, removing an accessibility ramp.

The $4-million cost was well over the original budget of $2.1 million.

To find the needed cash, city councillors agreed to postpone two other municipal projects planned for last year: million-dollar culvert replacement at Second Line and Leigh's Bay Road and a $750,000 seawall rehabilitation planned at the back off the civic centre adjacent to the St. Marys River.

A 2020 conditions assessment of the civic centre made a number of recommendations, including reconfiguring the lobby for pandemic-related issues including building security and physical distancing, and the need for sprinklers throughout the building.