Work at Hitch’n Post site will go into new year

By Gillian Slade on December 12, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade

The Hitch’n Post Saloon building is long gone but work on site will continue into January.

The installation of the buttresses and filling in the basement is mostly complete, said Dave Curtis, property administrator land and business support for the city.

“We are finalizing the requirements of capping the spaces between the foundations of the adjacent buildings and the remaining foundation at the 210 S. Railway St. SE property,” said Curtis.

This process will keep water from getting in between, freezing and causing some instability, he explained.

Some repair work will also be necessary on the walls of the adjacent buildings.

“This includes minor brick work on the southern property and cladding on part of the northern property that were exposed as a result of the demolition,” said Curtis. “My understanding is that all this work should be completed by mid-January 2019.”

Future use of this site will depend on what utility rights of way will be required around the abandoned gas wells on site. The gas wells were probably drilled in the 1890s to supply gas for the kitchen of what was then the American Hotel.

A patio is one of the options that has been discussed as a possibility in the past.

The City of Medicine Hat and the Orphan Well Association formed an agreement about a year ago on this project in the interests of public health and safety. The OWA will be installing an enhanced soil gas management system to manage the methane associated with the old leaking gas wells on site.

The OWA has a management system comprised of very shallow extraction/vertical well in the ground around a building and are connected with slotted pipes to a vacuum unit that collects gas and removes it from the soil.

The city and OWA split the associated costs equally with the city paying about $460,000.

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