County of Wetaskiwin council heard a detailed update at their Public Works meeting July 17, including the status of gravel roads that just wouldn’t thaw out.
Councilors read the regular report of Director of Public Works Neil Powell, who gave updates on frost boils, Pigeon lake wastewater system construction, the Gwynne area slide repair and much more.
“Graveled roads improved in the month of June with many of the frost boils finally settling down,” stated Powell in his report.
“The reclamation of the Gwynne Hill slide is progressing with the installation of retaining bin walls and backfill of the embankment slope. Weather permitting, the road should be ready to re-open by the end of July. Remaining work includes backfill to road subgrade, application of granular base course through the road bed structure, slope texturing and topsoil placement, application of erosion control blanket and re-installation of the guardrail.
“All of the dust control applications have been taken care of with some repeat touch ups required.
“The County hired a specialized machine and operator to pulverize Range Road 255 from Hwy 616 to TR 4 (4.8 km). The issue with this road is the legacy ACP and cold mix underlying a thin layer of gravel. This condition makes it very difficult for the patrol operator to properly grade and shape the road. To solve the problem, the pulverized material must be continually worked to ensure the cold mix does not re-bond, recreating the condition. The difficulty for Public Works is that the County is currently required to maintain dust control on this road at no charge to the residents, thereby reducing the number of blading events. Continued blading events would prevent the cold mix from re-bonding and the material would eventually dissipate. Note: the road leading to Bevetta Estates (TR 472) will be pulverized in 2019.
“Upon request and for a few days in June, a demo John Deere rubber tired excavator was provided by Brandt Tractor. The machine worked well as Public Works endeavors to improve our efforts in the maintenance along our roadways. Notably, traveling down rural and subdivision roads cleaning culvert inverts, ditching, brushing and gravel retrieval. The advantage of this machine is that it would typically be a one-man operation, easy to mobilize and ease of access for many of our road maintenance issues. A request to purchase a rubber-tired excavator will be included in the 2019 Fleet Capital Plan and presented to Council in November for discussion.
“The 2018 Road Construction Project(s) are proceeding. The work is being done by Netook Construction Ltd. and ROHI Engineering consulting. The work is progressing from east to west with the Bethany Homes guardrail and FLEET system installed as well as the shoulder pull and drainage work on TR 450 now complete. Currently, the crew is working on TR 472 west of Hwy 2A.
“The work on Phase 2 of the South Regional Pigeon Lake Wastewater System has started with preparations and excavation at the new lift station site and the installation of forcemain initiating at the Village at Pigeon Lake. Work will take several months with an expected October completion.”
During discussion, Powell showed councilors photos of some community mailboxes that had apparently been placed by Canada Post that were placed too close to the edge of the road. The mailboxes are supposed to be located four feet from the edge of the road; this gives graders enough room to plow snow, move gravel etc. Powell noted the mailboxes that are too close could be a problem.
Councilor Terry Van de Kraats asked how Canada Post notifies municipalities about the mailbox placement. Powell said, “They don’t notify us at all.” Van de Kraats responded, ‘”They should make us aware they’re doing that.”
Councilor Josh Bishop agreed, stating Canada Post should notify the municipality that they’re placing a structure on the public right-of-way.
Councilors accepted the Public Works report for information.
Stu.salkeld@pipestoneflyer.ca