Penhold council agreed to increase the dollar amount for a pipe diversion system in the north end by $15,000 last week.
On Aug. 8 council agreed to spend $75,000 on the work that will hopefully redirect as much as one third of flood waters away from the problem-plagued south end of town.
Last Monday, council was asked to extend it to $90,000, the best price admin could find so close to the end of the year, explained CAO Rick Binnendyk.
“It was painful for me to ask, we were originally hoping $75,000 would be more than enough to cover it,” he said.
Council approved the construction of a 50-metre long, 375-mm wide pipe system that originates at the intersection of Lucina Street and Robinson Avenue and directs floodwater into the Hawkridge storm pond at Lucina and Waskasoo Way.
He expects the work to begin this week.
Plans to put a pipe under the Lincholn lift station are on hold right now.
“Originally they were asking for $115,000. We talked to some of the contractors and we can’t get them in to do another small project because right now everyone’s scrambling, so it would be too high. So that’ll be a project for next year,” said Binnendyk, who said there are still some adjustments being made to the pumping system.
As for the overall assessment of the storm systems, Binnendyk expects to see results later next spring.
“What we’re asking (them) to do is a new analysis of all our storm systems in town to find out capacity and ability to ensure our flows are capable to pick up maybe a few more aggressive storm weather events.”
Council approved the $18,000 contract with Tagish Engineering last month.
“That will come back early spring and if we can move anything into the budget, we’ll move forward with it as well.”
