Bernard grand opening nears

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Only a few small items remain to be complete before Bernard Avenue officially reopens

Early and most likely under budget.

The Bernard Avenue revitalization project, which began after Labour Day of 2012, will be complete and open before the end of May - one full month ahead of schedule.

According to Design and Construction Director, Bill Berry, the heavy lifting is done.

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Now, it's just the little things.

A few lights still need to be fully installed, some concrete work has to be completed and a bit of hardware is left to install.

After that it's site clean-up and the official ribbon cutting.

While a date hasn't been determined yet, Berry expects that to be sometime during the final week of May.

The revitalization project was originally scheduled to span three phases beginning in September of 2012.

Construction was slated to avoid summer construction time and be complete by December of last year.

That timeline was bumped back after a strike by FortisBC last fall meant certain work on phase three couldn't be done.

That work was done this year during phase 3A which encompassed work between Pandosy and Ellis streets.

As for the cost, Berry says it won't be fully determined until after all the bills come in, but he says it is feasible the project could come in slightly under the $14M budget.