The flags are in the ground, signalling that AltaLink is getting closer to raising some powerlines that are interfering with construction of a new dog park along Levasseur Road, but no firm date has been set on when that work will happen.
Construction of the dog park has been delayed since September 2010 when the city found out that AltaLink was planning to raise the lines, allowing the company to increase the capacity and boost the system’s efficiency.
The company is waiting for approval from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) for an outage in order to proceed with the work, said Scott Schreiner, AltaLink’s director of consultation and communications.
Two structures in the area will be replaced with three different apparatuses that “will shrink the footprint of the structures,” Schreiner said.
He said the company is hoping to receive AESO’s blessing by mid-January so the company can start work. Power will be redirected so that no homeowners will be without electricity during the outage.
“There’s no impact on anyone’s power. It’s just redirected through our lines and distribution mechanisms,” Schreiner said.
Once the lines are raised, city council will need to take a couple of steps before construction can begin later in the spring, said John Younie, the city’s major projects and park planning manager. The city must first obtain a licence of occupation from AltaLink, which holds the title to the land. The area also has to be rezoned from a utility to a public space. That falls to council, as the land falls under direct control.
Once that’s all complete, construction should be relatively swift, Younie said.
“We can’t start digging until May or June. Once construction starts, it shouldn’t take very long,” he said.
The city will need to tender a contract to install chain link fencing, Younie said. Construction will include the fence, as well as installing a parking lot, garbage receptacles and dog waste bag dispensers.
The name also needs to be finalized, but Younie said it will likely be something along the lines of the Levasseur Dog Park.
“Normally the name of the park describes the road to which it is adjacent,” he said.
Construction of the park was originally supposed to take place in 2010 or 2011 but when the city found out AltaLink was planning to raise the lines, it elected to wait until that was finished. At the time, city managers explained that there was no sense in building a park, only to have parts of it potentially damaged because of AltaLink’s work.
