SUNDRE – The official re-opening of the Highway 27-Main Avenue corridor through downtown comes as a significant load off of the shoulders of the municipality’s operations manager.
“It’s a relief,” Jim Hall told the Albertan earlier today – Friday, June 21.
In a statement posted on the town’s website just the day prior, the municipality had announced that “underground utility work requiring closure of Highway 27 is now complete, and the roadway is re-open” with a reminder for motorists to “please obey stop signs at 3rd and 4th Streets.”
Although some underground construction will continue off of the highway throughout the rest of the summer, that work is not expected to affect traffic on the highway, the town said.
Hall said during a phone interview that paving was all done as of Wednesday and added the asphalt was then allowed to cool overnight so the road could reopen Thursday morning.
“We had traffic back to normal by 10 a.m. (yesterday),” he said.
Reaching the finish line – and just in time for this weekend’s Sundre Pro Rodeo with the first round of performances tonight – has certainly eased off some pressure and left Hall breathing that much easier.
“We had a deadline in our heads with the contractor, we were pushing them. Heavy weather rain, especially with underground work, it really throws us for a loop. So we were kind of hoping that we’d be working around any of that rain,” he said.
“The pipe-laying crew that was working for AIC (contractor), they were really technical, savvy guys; they got ’er done in a very timely fashion so that we could meet our deadline,” he said.
“It was a very, very difficult and technical project. But I’m very pleased with the contractor and the results of the infrastructure we put in,” he said.
“It’s going to be one less thing on our plate to look for for future infrastructure changes because it’s all brand new.”
A major hurdle faced by many municipalities – Sundre being no exception – is maintaining accurate records of what’s been installed in the ground and when.
For example, Hall cited special cameras that can be fed into pipes to reveal issues that can’t be seen from the surface with the naked eye ranging from sags in the line to cracks and infiltration.
“And the record drawing might say it’s (an) eight-inch (line) because somebody inadvertently put it in wrong years ago and it gets carried, and then you find out it’s 10 inches,” he said.
“Or the type of material; that was the biggest thing for me, is that on the highway it was cast steel. We thought it was ductile iron, that’s a big difference,” he said.
But throughout the course of construction, Hall said he hovered around to keep a close eye to see what was going into the ground for asset management.
“We want to capture what went in the ground, what came out,” he said.
“I’ve seen every inch of the pipe that was put in both last year and this year, and every manhole. So, I have a pretty good idea of how the system’s working and what’s in there now,” he said.
That means having a more accurate infrastructure inventory for future capital project planning. However, there’s rarely a dull moment in a public works department’s ongoing effort to maintain critical services.
“Now I can concentrate on other duties,” he said.
Next on his docket is seeing through to completion another ongoing major – albeit smaller-scale – project along 2nd Avenue NW, which he said is progressing along nicely.
“I’ve got all my sidewalks, pedestrian crosswalks done, and all the pavement patching,” he said.
“We’re just waiting for August to do what we call micro-surfacing so that it looks like a brand new road.”
And there’s also some additional work anticipated on a waterline under 3rd Street South between Original T’s restaurant and the Flower Shoppe.
“What happened is similar to what you’re hearing in Calgary but on a much smaller scale,” said Hall.
“When we tied in the Original T’s line going south, we tied in the first piece into some existing (line) and it actually ruptured. So we had to actually add another piece of pipe,” he said, adding that replacement wasn’t in great condition and left a lingering concern.
“So immediately, we started looking at a very, very near-future replacement of that main,” he explained.
That work, which will involve a roughly 100-metre stretch, is expected to take no more than five days, he said.
“We’re going to have some ground water issues there, there’s a lot of underground rivers,” he said, calling the time estimate conservative.
“It’ll get rid of a pipe that we’re concerned about,” he added.
But that construction isn’t expected to affect east- or west-bound traffic travelling along Highway 27, other than motorists being temporarily unable to turn south onto 3rd Street throughout the duration of the work.
