Work began beneath the Allowance Avenue overpass this week as contract crews began this year's phase of redeveloping S. Railway Street. Construction to replace underground pipes as well as the road surface and sidewalks in the area from the overpass to Kingsway Avenue will continue until fall.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
Medicine Hat News
Several business owners on South Railway Street say this year’s effort to finish replacing utility lines and remake the aging roadway is not off to a good start.
Desmond Pinder, owner of Ted’s Dental Laboratory, says water service to his facility near the corner of Kingsway Avenue was shut off for a brief period in the morning as contracted crews began preliminary staging work.
“It’s a little annoying when there’s no notice,” says Pinder, whose company creates porcelain crowns and also needs water to sterilize dentures.
He said utility disruptions can ruin projects and wreak havoc on expensive equipment. In the same building a pet groomer and a restaurant were also affected.
Pinder said it’s obvious the roadway needs to be updated, but notice that utility service could be interrupted would help him schedule work around potential problems.
City officials said notice is typically given and they worked hard last year to avoid as must disruption as possible, and will again this summer.
“The operators were checking valves to see which were operational,” said Sandeep Pareek, the city’s project engineer. “It was only off for a very brief time, a matter of minutes.”
Construction was to begin this week on the remaining stretch from the overpass to Kingsway Avenue. A traffic mitigation plan aims to keep public access to businesses open throughout.
Major construction was set to begin April 2, but Pareek said the colder weather has prevented the ground from thawing, which has delayed the ramp-up of activity.
Last year, crews completed the section of the road — one of the city’s oldest and most in need of repair — from the bottom of Scholten Hill to the Allowance Avenue overpass, but haven’t yet added the final layer of pavement.
Water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer lines are being replaced at the same time, section by section, before the roadway is replaced on the narrow stretch and sidewalks are replaced. Planners have said the configuration, angled intersections and generally busy collection of business drives, parking lots and loading zones, make it one of the most difficult roadways in the city to engineer.
