THUNDER BAY -- While city officials say the restoration project on the waterfront terminal is coming along well, there is a slight delay with construction materials and resources.

This delay will cause the construction, undertaken by Aurora Construction Limited, to continue into December, with the terminal anticipated to open just before Christmas.

"We've set up a temporary terminal on Cumberland (Street) in front of the Wayland building. Those operations will stay until the new terminal is open," said Brad Loroff, the City of Thunder Bay's manager of transit services.

Loroff said they will also be moving in some larger canopies before the end of October to provide a little bit more protection from the inclement weather expected later this year.

He explained that these two larger canopies will be about 25 feet wide each to keep people out of the overhead elements.

At this point, transit services do not expect to add heaters to the temporary terminal.

Nonetheless, Loroff encouraged the city to persevere and hoped that people would be pleased with the terminal once things open.

"In addition to refreshing the entire building envelope, there will be additional interior as well as exterior space for passengers... waiting for buses. There is a refresh of all of the interior passenger destination screens -- all the electronics. It'll be a fully accessible building," Loroff said.

"The whole building itself is designed in keeping with the city's net zero strategy. There are also some behind-the-scenes improvements to the size of the operator lunchroom and operator amenities. Pedestrian wayfinding connected to the area downtown here in Port Arthur."

A large overhang is also part of the added exterior space that transit services are putting in, he added.

"With the old terminal, we did not have that. If you wanted to be out of the elements, you were inside and it was a very small passenger waiting area," Loroff said.

"So, what's happening here is an increased interior space for passengers as well as the new overhang to help people stay out of the elements when they want to... wait outside for their bus."

Overall, there are all kinds of great things planned for the waterfront terminal, Loroff said, adding that he believes people will really like it when it opens up.

Water Street bus terminal should reopen before Christmas