Work begins Monday on the rebuild of Goderich's Courthouse square.
The major downtown infrastructure project has been years in the making, and Mayor Trevor Bazinet said he's ready for the monumental day to arrive.
"If you had asked me that question a year ago, I would have said 'ugh,' but I feel way more confident now," he said at the Huron Chamber Mayor's Luncheon. "We've really communicated well with our stakeholders, our business owners and the public. We've provided everyone that has taken the opportunity a chance to share their ideas... there's got to be some compromise made, but we've listened to everyone and I think what we have here is something that's going to be beautiful and serve our future generations for many years to come."
The dig is necessary to replace 100-year-old infrastructure in the downtown, and while they're at the Town will be making upgrades to the Square to improve safety and accessibility for all.
Phase 1 will focus on the southeast corner of the Square. Crews from Lavis Contracting will begin removing asphalt, curbs and interlocking brick from South to East Street.
Vehicle access through this stretch will be restricted from Monday to Friday, but when safe to do so, one lane will be open on weekends for traffic.
There will be four phases overall, with work on the south half of the square being completed this year, and the north half getting handled in 2026.
The Town of Goderich is encouraging people to keep visiting businesses, by keeping sidewalks access open throughout.
Bazinet said he'll be out there often conversing with those impacted, but the town will also have business liaison joining the project.
"Communication is so important with this, so we're going to have weekly meetings, but then we're also going to have a person on-site three days of the week for businesses to be able to ask their questions and go to if they need to," he said. "With projects like this, things can change on the fly because of weather, so we need to have someone made available. That's something we learned from the other communities that went through this, they said have a communications person available."
Bazinet said interviews for the position have been completed and council will receive a recommendation to hire an individual at the May 20 meeting.
To get the latest info on the project, visit the Downtown Rebuild page on the Town of Goderich website.