St. Albert is moving forward on some municipal capital projects this September, while the remainder of projects have been delayed until next year.
Dawny George, director of engineering at the City of St. Albert, presented a report this past week to council with recommendations on what projects should go ahead this fall and which ones should be deferred until 2021. It passed unanimously on Sept. 8.
City administration completed its first review of projects back in March with subsequent reviews in April and June on municipal and utility projects to help with the city’s cash flow amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This latest report was less about managing cash flow issues and more about recognizing the end of construction season, George said. Some projects slated for this year got off to a late start because of those deferrals, making completion difficult with colder weather moving in.
“We’re no longer in a cash flow situation but we have lost part of the construction season that we have to move (projects) to next year, or another reason is our resources are tight in delivering in what we’ve already approved because we had a late start,” she said.
“Let’s finish what we have and then focus the rest in 2021 is the idea.”
City administration looked at 35 capital and utility projects and recommended proceeding with five capital projects, totalling $22.1 million, as well as seven utility projects for a total of $8.8 million.
Council then approved the deferral of 19 capital projects, with a total budget of $9.5 million, to 2021. Four utility projects with a total budget of $2.9 million were also pushed back to next year.
Projects moving forward include land acquisition for Fire Hall 4 to be located on the former Village Transit Station site, repair and renewal assessments of Fountain Park and St. Albert Place, non-emergency radio system replacement, and a financial system software project.
Seven utility projects, totalling $8.9 million, are moving forward to deal with a number of emergent failings to the city’s wastewater mains and storm sewer infrastructure.
Eight storm outfall failings were recorded by the city this spring, meaning work will need to be done in the fall to mitigate flooding next year. Emergent failures to the city’s wastewater main must be done before the winter to protect against sewer backup as well, according to the city.
Coun. Ken MacKay asked if the city was having maintenance issues with some of its utility infrastructure given the number of projects in the queue.
Kate Polkovsky, director of utilities and environment, explained utility projects are generally planned for when the infrastructure needs to be replaced.
“We have run into a little bit of a pickle at the end of the season because we didn’t get to the infrastructure we planned on getting to,” Polkovsky said.
With the construction season continuing into the fall, it’ll be a race to complete this work before the weather turns, she added.
“I’m going to have some extremely busy people that are hitting the ground for September, October and hopefully a mild November so that I can get some things rectified before the winter, Christmas season arises.”
The purchase of a new fire engine was delayed until 2022, with a price tag of $1.5 million. The $2.5 million purchase of a fire aerial apparatus — ladder, elevating platform, ladder platform, etc. – will be delayed until 2023 as well.
St. Albert fire chief Bernd Gretzinger said the delayed purchase of new fire truck would actually coincide well with the opening of Fire Hall #4 in 2023.
Push back on the purchase of a new fire truck ladder will be a bit more difficult, he said, as there could be some problems in the future if the city’s backup unit starts breaking down.
“The concern I have is just with the growing city, with the number of potential high rises and wide rise buildings, these aerial units are obviously very important to us,” Gretzinger said. It could take a year and a half to procure this equipment, he said.
Chief administrative officer Kevin Scoble said the city could look at these deferred projects again if any problems arise.
