SUNDRE — Repairing and upgrading roads as well as sidewalks remains a never-ending effort that the municipality endeavours to stay on top of.
“We’ve been trying to address some of the roads that have been very, very bad,” said Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer.
“Recognizing that there’s a few areas that need attention, but some of the areas that are really bad and really need attention,” Nelson said during a phone interview following a special council meeting that was called on Sept. 13 to discuss a capital project.
Among the numerous streets that have been identified as being in need of servicing, is an access road to Tall Timber Leisure Park, whose board of directors recently brought up to administration, she said.
“They had a project where they were paving some of their internal roads on their own private property,” she said.
Their request, she explained, was for the town to consider repaving a “very small strip” of road on 9th Street NE immediately north of First Avenue NE, she said.
Following a brief deliberation during the special meeting, council carried a motion to proceed with the project at a cost of nearly $37,000, with funds being drawn from a Federal Gas Tax Fund grant, she said.
The section of road had already prior to the board of directors’ request been identified and included among a list of priorities to be addressed, she said.
Other capital projects involving roads, sidewalks and access ways the municipality has been tackling include the resurfacing of Centre Street South from the traffic lights down to 1st Avenue SW along with fresh sidewalks, chip sealing on the alley behind Alberta Treasury Branch between Second Street NW and Third Street NW, the 6th Street NW business access and parking lot north of the Main Avenue-Highway 27 corridor, as well as Sixth Street SE east of the Bergen Road from Highway 27 down to Third Avenue, she said.
“They were all funded through grants,” she said. “These are roads that have been identified for a number of years, where we’ve had concerns from citizens on the condition of the roads.”
Of course “roads are in constant need of repair,” she added.
However, they cannot all be done at the same time.
“These ones that we did get finished this year were among some of the most (deteriorated) — the ones that were in most need of repair,” she said. “We try to get to those as we have funds available and as the need arises.”
