Despite the unseasonable late summer weather last week the town is expecting minimal delays in the completion of the third and final phase of the multi-million dollar Downtown Revitalization Project.
Craig Teal, the town's director of planning and operational services, said project work along 50th Street from 44th to 47th avenues was disrupted only one day for AIC Construction crews during last week's inclement weather that brought late summer snow and cold weather to Innisfail and the region.
Teal said the town is still looking at a completion date in the week of Sept. 22 for the major work needed for the project's final phase, which is what he predicted last June. When Phase 3 is completed at a cost of $2.3 million it will mark the end of the ambitious three-year downtown project, which has a total price tag of $8.5 million.
“We are still hoping to have asphalt down on the road back up for use but we will also still be working on the landscaping but we can still open up some of the travel lanes so we will get back a bit closer to the normal traffic patterns,” said Teal, conceding some of the other work may have to be completed early next month. “The landscaping will probably carry us into the first week of October.”
He said there is hope that better weather for the rest of the month will help make up lost time and workers will be able to get close to the original schedule to completely finish every aspect of Phase 3.
“I can't control early fall weather. We are still hoping weather will cooperate with us to be able to keep that up,” said Teal, adding there are no cost implications for the town if there are delays. “If the snow comes down again and stays we will have to revise the schedule.”
Teal said the town has been pleased with the overall progress of construction but did note there were some early problems to overcome.
“We had some problems initially in terms of isolating water valves,” said Teal. “That was a bit of an upset off the start and fortunately during some of the better days weather-wise they were able to catch up and get us closer back to the original schedule. That has been the only hiccup.”
