City Council Decides Not to Spend More Money on Tunnel Until a Full Report in the Fall

Canada’s First Railway Tunnel Opens to the Public This Friday, May 17th at 9:00 am!

Brockville – At its regular council meeting last night Brockville City Council decided to hold off on spending any more money on the Railway Tunnel lighting system until a full report on what is needed going forward.

Council voted unanimously to two amendments to the original motion of approving $84,796.61 to remedial repairs of the 13 control and power pedestals that house the lights’ electronics.

The amendments moved the decision to some time in the fall when the council can get a more detailed report from staff.

Director of Operations, Phil Wood noted at last night’s meeting that the 3 main problems with the failing of the lights were, the constant dripping in the tunnel has left mineral deposits on the lenses of the lights, which in turn has caused water infiltration, leading to their quick failure, water infiltration into the 13 pedestals, corroding the enablers that operate the light show, and a previous method of testing the lights for failure was contributing to their downfall.

Woods continued to say that they are now employing a non-evasive way to test the lights without damaging them.

The Brockville Railway Tunnel is expected to open this Friday, May 17th at 9:00 am with white lights temporarily until delivery of new equipment needed to restore it to the full light show.

The funding of $300,000 for the new replacement equipment was approved a couple of weeks ago by city council.

In the meantime, the city will continue to work on repairs and upgrades to bring back the coloured light show in all its glory, expected to be back in full force as soon as the required parts arrive and can be installed and programmed, which they estimate will be mid-summer.

As of Friday, the tunnel will be open from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm 7 days a week.