At the May 21 meeting of the Drumheller Town Council, approval was given to award Knibb Developments Ltd. the contract for the 2013 cast iron water line replacement program in downtown Drumheller.
This year, the program will replace the aging cast iron lines in the alley behind the Drumheller Legion, north across 2nd Avenue West, and ending next to Riverside Value Drug Mart.
The alley was identified as a top priority due to numerous breaks in the line over the years.
However, more work may be added should the opportunity arise.
“We may extend it or add some pieces that could speed up or make the project easier next year, but until we negotiate with the contractor, we won’t know,” said Allan Kendrick, Director of Infrastructure Services for the Town of Drumheller. “We have a little bit of money left in the budget, so we’ll try to use that to our advantage.”
The Town had budgeted $620,000 for this year’s program. Knibb Developments Ltd. bid just under half that, at $353,493.
Knibb Developments Ltd. were contracted two years ago to replace the water mains in the alley north of 3rd Avenue, between 1st Street West and Centre Street. The project ran over its original completion estimates late into the fall.
The delay was caused by unexpected lines running through the alley, such as steam lines from the Waldorf, and Knibb Developments Ltd. was also working on other projects in Town at the same time.
The cast iron water main replacement program was initiated to replace downtown’s ageing water lines.
“We still have other parts of the line that are getting to an age where they could start leaking,” said Kendrick. “You’re dealing with infrastructure that’s around 40 to 50 years old. Now we are doing the best and using the best products that are available to us.”
It is expected the program will continue for a couple more years, but though the annual construction disrupts traffic downtown, the benefits outweigh the costs.
“Once we get through the cast iron project, we’ll go back to an auditor survey for leak detection and then get more proactive on repairs,” said Kendrick. “We’ve increased our flow capacity downtown by increasing the size of the pipe. By upgrading it, we increase flow capacity for fire protection and we’ve achieveg a number of things doing this program.”
