Despite wet weather, downtown construction is on track, business owners and members of the public learned last week.
During a 50th Street construction public information session June 27 at the legion, Craig Teal, director of planning and development and representatives with Tagish Engineering brought about 14 people up to speed on the current project.
The two went over the projected changes in construction for the upcoming weeks as Phase 1 is completed.
They also explained the closure of 49 Avenue and 50 Street that started Friday morning is only expected to last about a week.
Teal said the work requires only a trench cut as opposed to ripping up the road entirely as seen along the rest of 50 Street.
Water and sewer lines between 51 and 50 Avenues have been completed and plans to reopen traffic between 53 and 50 Street is expected in the coming week as well as opening the centre area between 50 Avenue and 50 Street to pedestrians.
People in attendance, the majority business owners, said they were pleased to see the town's efforts in promoting businesses downtown and said getting to know the back entrances of some of the businesses was interesting, especially for those businesses that made the back look more inviting.
They did note some of the alleyways were suffering from increased traffic with large potholes forming. Teal said plans were in motion for town crews to fill over and fix.
He also said another open house should be scheduled in approximately five weeks to allow for more public discussion.
Meanwhile, plans for Phase 2 are currently ongoing. Construction will begin in the spring of 2013 and will continue on 50 Street ending either to the east or west of 47 Avenue. He said plans are still to be approved by council but expects open houses will be held sometime in the fall or towards Christmas to get feedback from the public. He noted the challenge for the second phase will be finding appropriate detour routes for drivers and pedestrians alike.
