Council approves $275,000 upgrades

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

With Lakeside Blvd. currently undergoing ineluctable construction, a lack of a complete storm sewer infrastructure in the downtown area required town council to consider Strathmore’s future and dip into funds for an increased storm water mainline.
With heavy machinery currently tearing Lakeside Blvd. and 4th Avenue apart for the reconstruction of the utility mains and roadway, the town decided to spend $275,000 to increase storm water mainline sizing in Lakeside Blvd. The upgrade would provide for future extensions of storm sewer to the nearby 6th Avenue and 5th Avenue. In turn, expanding the storm main along 4th Avenue, would allow better storm water management along the route and permit a storm water facility expansion for 2nd St. and 3rd St.
“We are currently under construction of the Lakeside Blvd. and 4th Avenue project which includes replacement of the existing underground utilities,” said Gord Elenko, director of engineering for the Town of Strathmore. “For the storm sewer, the project included replacement only of the existing aged storm sewer. Having the storm sewer allows us to have options to how the water is managed. Not all of it has to be kept on site. You can have controlled releases and other things like that, which developers then can use as options.”
The current storm sewer design was justified based on pipe sizes for mains and the Kinsmen Lake outfall. However, since then, the pipe size of the outfall to Kinsmen Lake was deter-mined to be much smaller than originally anticipated and, therefore, under capacity for the current design.
With an increase in development in the downtown area and plans for greater density, most developments would be required to incorporate alternatives to manage storm water on site – an option that can often prove costly. Such alternatives include rain gardens, bio swales, and other surface storage.
While Councillor Bob Sobol was concerned that the project was not included in the original design, Elenko remarked that the cost seemed to be the primary driver behind the storm sewer having been left out in the design. The Lakeside Blvd. and 4th Avenue project was previously postponed when its cost of over $6 million was deemed too substantial for the town in 2014. The project in 2015 proved beneficial for the town, with the project currently estimated to cost $3.45 million.
“The project approval being substantially less than it was originally, we actually potentially have room in the budget,” said Elenko. “So we’d be going over budget, but well within the original scope that we had.”
Administration outlined four possible options for dealing with the storm water infrastructure. Council had the choice to continue with the existing design by replacing the existing storm sewer only and therefore dealing with limited storm sewer capacity. Option two would be a small upsize of the existing storm sewer; however the department identified some constraints within the existing capacity. With an attached price tag of $175,000, council also had the chance to increase the storm water mainline sizing in Lakeside Blvd. for future extensions of storm sewer into 6th Avenue, 5th Avenue, and 4th Avenue. In the end council decided on option four, which, while more expensive, would install the greatest infrastructure size and thus prevent further reconstruction on Lakeside Blvd. in the future. The outfall replacement would also be upgraded for ultimate flow.
However, councillors raised several concerns regarding the WID canal, the lake, and the budget. Administration assured council that the canal not pose any concerns, while option four would mean the lake’s outfall would be increased to the park and not into the lake.
Council decided to include option four as a scope change to the project on May 20.