Construction of a barrier wall along St. Albert Trail by Sturgeon has almost wrapped up.
While some minor work still needs to be completed, crews for Wilco Contractors removed the jersey barriers blocking the road Thursday between Hebert Road and Sterling Street, after having them in place in 300-metre stretches throughout the summer.The project did not go according to plan at times, including when construction crews burst a water main in July, flooding some neighbouring properties. About a month later a stop work order was issued to Wilco when a gas line was hit, shutting down gas services to 760 homes for nine hours.
After the company demonstrated compliance, they were given permission to resume construction activities.
Project manager Garry Dang-Vuu said the majority of the work is complete and only minor tasks still need to be completed.
“We are days away from being pretty well complete here,” he said. “In my personal opinion, the project has gone pretty smooth.”
Dang-Vuu said since the two big incidents, there have been no further issues.
This is the second phase of a three-phase project replacing the sound barrier along St. Albert Trail. Originally this summer’s projected completion date was end of September.
Wilco Contractors Northwest Inc. president Art Maat agreed the project has being going “quite smoothly.”
“The gas line incident was unfortunate, as was the water line incident, but some of it is based on poor information at the time of the construction and these things occurred because of that,” he said. “Mistakes happen – they’re not acceptable, but mistakes happen.”
On Thursday, Wilco thanked motorists for their patience on a variable message sign and offered free coffee at McDonald’s for a few hours.
“It’s obviously a big relief for everyone to get us off the road – again, with all the rain and delays, we had over 35 to 40 rain days in the season,” Maat said.
Part of the project involved removing public and private trees, which caused some blowback from residents during an open house in May. Dang-Vuu said in total 95 trees were removed and 35 new trees were planted.
The city brought in a third-party consultant to determine compensation for homeowners who had their trees removed.
The sound barrier wall is being replaced after structural issues prompted the city to replace the old barrier wall and bring it up to industry standards. It is being done in three phases and last summer the first phase was complete, involving a section between Villeneuve Road and Giroux Road.
This summer the wall’s southern portion was complete between Hebert Road and Sterling Street.
Phase three, Sterling to Sturgeon Road, is tentatively set for next year, subject to council's approval in its 2020 budget.
A preliminary version of the budget is set to appear before council during their regular council meeting on Monday.
Previously the project, inclusive of studies and open houses, was costed at just over $6 million over five years.
Now Dang-Vuu is saying that price tag is rising, due to higher than anticipated tenders.
The 2019 work for the one-kilometre span was budgeted at just under $2 million, but it ended up costing $3 million.
Dang-Vuu said he anticipates costs for the final stretch to be similar, but until it goes to tender it is hard to say.
