KITCHENER – Road crews are racing Mother Nature to finish off the construction season as the first flurries in Waterloo Region begin to fly.
The big dig at Weber and Frederick, for example, began six months ago, with crews expected to be done in a couple of weeks.
That's just one of several projects around the region trying to finish up before more serious snow hits.
READ MORE: To see other projects going on in Waterloo Region, visit the interactive map on the region's website.
Take Ottawa and David Bergey, tucked into Laurentian Hills.
Hans Gross, the city's director of engineering, says that crews are hoping to seal those streets by the end of the month, when wetter and colder weather is expected.
"It will cause the ground and gravel to become saturated and if you get a frost, if you get very cold weather, then that prevents you from putting down asphalt," he explains.
There are a lot of moving parts in roadwork.
When a delay hits, it's usually the last in line, the landscapers, who get pushed back.
"You may not be able to bring in topsoil to do the boulevards or cut sod to put on the ground," he says.
Regional roads, Homer Watson, Weber and King Street in Uptown Waterloo all underwent work this season.
That's pretty typical by volume, but progress was slowed by a soggy start to spring.
"If the weather turned dramatically colder and wetter it might slow us up a bit more," says director of design and construction Phil Bauer.
Homer Watson's newest addition, a multipurpose trail, and the Iron Horse Trail are both getting resurfaced.
The region is hoping to have them both done by the first week of December.
Meanwhile, back on Weber and Frederick, crews will finish around the same time, but back in August, the region made the call to delay some of the work until next year.
That means that they'll be back again in the springtime.
