Lac Ste. Anne County Activity Report LSAC_Flipbook_Activity Report 2016-17_FINAL_HiRes | Page 19

REPORT FROM PUBLIC WORKS RICK HALTINER Public Works Manager [email protected] 780.785.3411 TF 1.866.880.5722 Public Works provides a spectrum of essential engineering, operations and maintenance services for those who live, work and play within the Lac Ste. Anne County region. Lac Ste. Anne County owns and maintains 217 bridge structures. In the past, the County received no provincial funding for its bridge program. As a result, maintenance was severely impacted, resulting in load restrictions and closed bridges. In 2016, the County tendered and repaired seven bridges. Three critical bridges were opened to traffic at the end of December 2016, and the balance of the work was completed mid-March. Total cost of this project was roughly $1 Million. Tasked with the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the County’s considerable infrastructure, the Public Works department never stops moving. During 2016, we overlaid one kilometre in Lakewood Estates, and performed major push patching on more than 70 km of oil roads, spending approximately $500,000 to patch and maintain the County’s hard-surfaced roads. Additionally, we ground up 18 kilometres of oil roads and incorporated soil stabilizer to prepare for future overlay. For 2017, the plan is to do more overlay of oil roads, plus perform patching and maintenance on the remaining oil roads. In 2016, seven (7) more bridges were identified for repairs. Tenders were sent out with repairs anticipated for completion in 2017. We have received funding under the Federal Gas Tax for a much-needed capital investment of these bridges. Moreover, the new Provincial budget has committed to $100 million to the Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) to commence in 2017/18. As Lac Ste. Anne County’s bridge program has gone unfunded for the past three years, we are optimistic that financial assistance under this program for bridge repair/ replacement may be a near reality. 90% of Lac Ste. Anne County roads are gravel roads. Therefore, Public Works continually strives to secure aggregate resources for current and future road maintenance. In 2016, gravel resources from River Valley Crushing (Barrhead Transit Mix), Connor Creek, Magnolia, EGT and Yellowhead Aggregates were used. In 2017, Public Works is planning roughly 9.6 kilometres of shoulder pull projects required to save the integrity and structure of a road without complete and costly reconstruction of the roadway. Shoulder pull construction involves restoring the crown of the road, reshaping the side slope and bringing the road back to the proper width, in addition to cleaning up the ditches. In early 2016, Lac Ste. Anne County purchased a tridem gravel pup to be pulled by a tandem truck to augment our gravel program equipment. The County saved approximately $548,000 on the haul of 92,920.7 tonnes of gravel in the past fiscal year by utilizing our own trucks. We anticipate similar savings in future years. Due to the wet fall of 2016, the County is planning a larger graveling program for 2017, during which we will seek to gravel approximately 480 kilometres of road. WATER/WASTE WATER Public Works operates and maintains the water and sanitary sewer systems and related valves, manholes, catch basins, meters and lift stations. The water treatment plant treats, on average, 90,000 litres of water every day of high q