The soggy weather has slowed construction on the Anthony Henday, but it won't prevent it from opening on time.
With weather delaying other construction projects across the region, it is no surprise the northwest leg of the ring road is suffering, but not enough to throw it off course, according to deputy project manager Mark Basher.
“Our deadlines are fixed so we are still anticipating opening this October. Some of the planned openings of some of the cross streets are slipping, but in other areas we are making reasonable progress.”
Basher, with the Flatiron Graham Parsons consortium, said the cross streets — where existing streets are being realigned — and new bridges are slipping off the company's plans, but he is confident they will be able to catch up for the October deadline.
“Additional resources are being brought to the site to accelerate some of the areas.”
Basher said they shift work around the massive project when rain makes some work impossible.
“It is certainly impacting some aspects of the program, some of the work is continuing that is not affected by the rain as much.”
With this year's completion deadline looming, he said other companies are being brought in.
“We are separating components off. We are subcontracting with local companies to have some of the work completed.”
In St. Albert, the rain has also delayed some work on asphalt overlays and some landscaping at Riel Park.
The planned reconstruction of Falstaff Avenue was also delayed, not due to the weather but because of issues with gas lines.
“The start date was pushed back by about a week and a half, but that is because we were working with ATCO Gas,” said Tracy Allen, the city's manager of capital projects.
Allen said that project should still finish near its original deadline of the end of August, but if the miserable weather continues it would pose challenges.
“If we have another three weeks of rain, it will affect us. If it dries out and starts to be more like a typical Alberta summer that we see in St. Albert, we should be finishing on or pretty close to the original scheduled date.”
