Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Major Projects Review provides for a stream of percentages on progress for City initiatives


The  first of what is to be a Monthy overview of Civic projects was provided at Monday evening's City Council Session, with Director of Operations Richard Pucci providing the Council members and those viewing from home with a look at how some of the major and lesser of note initiatives are moving forward.

Among his notes, of much interest no doubt is the status of the Water Dam project which Mr. Pucci described as at 85 percent complete and anticipated to be finished by February of 2022 when commissioning will take place. 

"Currently at the Woodworth Dam, the piping is now through the dam. The Northside abutment concrete is almost complete, we've had a lot of storms as the community knows setting us back, we're looking at now going into next year and looking at commissioning in February, we're showing an 85% complete on that"

Towards the City's plans for water treatment the Director noted that:

"Water Treatment, which would be water treatment proper, the quality assessment is now complete on our water which is the chemical make up or the fingerprint of the water. We are going to start treatment with the province as soon as possible, which is a value engineering exercise and design exercise"

Other elements of the city's water planning included a review of the Skada system and submarine line elements.

"The Skada system is in the process of getting upgraded right now, so we're looking at new hardware and we're also looking at  new towers for that.  And the new submarine line is going into design just inside of the new year.  So the submarine line is about 5 percent complete, the Skada line also about five percent complete. Water treatment we're going to say is about ten percent complete because we finished the first part of that which is the quality assessment.



He also noted that the other significant project of the moment, that of the Landfill site is also at 95% completion, though he observed that like the Dam project, it too has been impacted by the weather situation, with a completion date anticipated of December 1st.

"The new landfill cell is ninety five percent complete, we're pleased to say that. We are just finishing up the new landfill cell, the liner is about 95 precent complete, the lagoon is commissioning. We've obviously had some setback with the latest storms and we haven't had any luck there so the commissioning has to continue until we can get some good weather and the bugs to be activated. We're looking at a December first or that week really to be completed, but the storms could set us back on that landfill cell a little bit more.

Towards the City's recycling program Mr. Pucci advised that they were at 85 percent complete he noted that the information program and an app program will continue to roll through the fall.

"We are continuing to message with the community and we are continuing to put out more updates so we ask for people to please look out for that. We will be launching our new app and we will be messaging that very soon and we just remind everybody that it is a weekly service which we are very proud to continue with the community. The recycling program we are saying is about 85 precent complete right now"



On the progress of the city's plans for the new RCMP detachment Mr. Pucci observed: 

"The RCMP detachment we are looking at about 15 precent complete on that, we are still reviewing the schedule with the province for their component of that, if it's a combined detachment or just a city led detachment. We are slating the demolition for next summer on our site, which is the former Kingdom Hall site"

For the Sewage treatment plans the Director of Operations noted.

"The liquid waste sewer solutions which is a wetland treatment for our sewage, its a pilot program that  we are doing with the FCM and we are looking for provincial funding on that  as well. We are showing that at approximately five percent complete we're going into design first thing in the new year and hopefully have that one constructed by the end of 2023"

He outlined the plans for an area of the city to be known as the Eat Street Project, which is where the new Urbaloo washroom facility is located on Third West.

"The Eat Street Square, that is where there is a new Ubraloo washroom and we're going to be having some new food trucks that will be permanently housed there. We've had site delays obviously due to the storms and also some found fuel tanks that were on site We are just finishing up the ground prep to allow for that to be completed and to get some food trucks there so that we can have a great little vending spot"

When it came to questions,  Councillor Cunningham asked about a location for the water treatment plant, though he was advised that the final selection has not been decide on and that the city prefers not to disclose that location until they are further into the process.

Councillor Adey, shared some insight into his days of marking papers as a high school teacher, that as he reviewed the percentages of completion rates on the projects, asking a question on the Woodworth Dam and recent events in BC and the impact of weather events had been factored into the design of the new infrastructure.

Mr. Pucci noted that the dam design had been adjusted to reflect weather concerns.

"We actually took into account more rainfall and global warming and we've raised the dam two and half metres from its original height to account for that.  And so one, we have more capacity, but we also have that free board to deal with these surges that were happening before. We were seeing with the old dam that it was overlapping quite frequently and so we've raised the dam two and a half metres in this design"

The Mayor observed how this would be the start of the Monthly major projects review and that the new City Manager has a number of other more regular reports to provide for in the future.

The full list of a range of the major projects can be reviewed below:

click to enlarge


You can review the Director of Operations report from the City's Video Archive starting at the 2 and half minute mark of the session.



More items of note from the Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Timeline Feature.

For more themes on Major projects and civic infrastructure see our archive here.

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