Citing safety concerns, the City of Oshawa says the contractors hired to rebuild Verdun Road are in default and city staff are looking for alternate means to complete the project.

Oshawa hired Orin Contractors to rebuild Verdun Avenue, including putting in water and sewer lines.

In June, a worker employed by Orin died in hospital after being trapped under the bucket of a backhoe in a trench. On June 19, it took two hours for firefighters to rescue the man due to the conditions in the trench. They had to deal with a broken gas line and also had to shore up the muddy trench before they could rig up the bucket and carefully lift it off the man.

Melanie McLean said the man was trapped in front of her house, and neighbours are very sympathetic to the man’s family and co-workers who lost one of their own.

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She said the man who died was the only contact for residents with Orin Contractors and the project has continued to be a large mess.

“They keep digging up the same areas over and over,” she said.

Contractors left large holes in the road as well as large piles of dirt, preventing residents from accessing driveways and sidewalks. In some cases people’s cars were trapped on their driveways. There were also large holes on the sidewalks, trapping people with mobility issues in their homes.

McLean explains the site has been left in a state where it’s impossible for emergency vehicles to access homes overnight and on the weekend.

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