Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[ZEBuilder]

They have way more than a rough idea of the bridge design, they're past the 90% design stage and know exactly where piers are going along with dozens of other aspects, they have a few outstanding issues to work through and then the bridge design is complete but those issues won't substantially change the design.  In general when it comes to design work there are minimal changes between 90% and 100%, 60% and 90% are often very similar as well so they could have started grading works at 60% and have minimal rework when it comes time to actual construction.

That makes sense.  Thanks.

I saw one weird summary of a contract (tender?) that seemed to say completion was in 2029.  Do you know if that is the whole bridge or just the design or something in between or just some nonsense I misinterpreted?

From what I know design of the bridges should be done this year, the contract is tentatively set to go to tender next year (2027) as for completion of the bridges it's likely 2 to 3 years after the contract is awarded. The redesign of the Hanlon end of 7 is expected to be completed by the end of 2030, that design tender (I posted about it a few posts ago) has 2029 as the program year. That's really been the only thing for this stretch of 7.

There's a handful of contracts coming up for resurfacing of the expressway out to New Hamburg and then up to the north end of Waterloo, along with bridge rehab (including interchange redesigns) and a rather complicated culvert replacement which are all coming in the next few years but most of that was 2027/2028.