As the historic buildings along Rossland Avenue continue to deteriorate, so does the network of pipes that lie beneath the Gulch roadway.
This week the city is embarking on an expensive but needed replacement of sewer line on the 900 block of Rossland Avenue, which could mean some traffic delays while the conventional repair is being completed.
Maglio Installations was awarded the $497,000 contract and the two-month long construction is expected to begin today.
“This is a significant job and could take several months,” explained David Perehudoff during the Aug. 18 governance meeting. “But hopefully it’ll be minimal in terms of impact.”
He said most of the work is in the right-of-way so traffic and pedestrian delays shouldn’t become a major issue because the construction company was required to advance a traffic control plan as part of the contract.
To reduce disruption to the affected Rossland Avenue businesses, some of the work will take place on Sundays.
“The city asks that all motorists and pedestrians take caution when approaching this area,” said Andrea Jolly, the city’s communications coordinator. “And to obey all the signs and traffic control personnel.”
The estimated completion date is Oct. 30.
During the city’s Trenchless Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Program last year, the Rossland Ave. section of the sanitary sewer system was determined to have degraded to the point that lining the pipe was not an option.
The project was deferred last year when a previous bid came in substantially higher than the city expected, but the potential of failure and pipe collapse deemed the work a priority so it was re-tendered earlier this year.
To cover the pricey job, council opted to proceed with the Rossland Ave. pipe replacement job at the August governance meeting and defer two other sections of town in need of the same fix.
Allocated sewer capital funds exceeding $115,000 were redirected to repair the Gulch pipeline located near Gerick Cycle & Sports, which means the Shaver’s Bench sewer main replacement from the south end of East St. along the bank leading to Rockland Ave. will be delayed, and a line of pipe along the 1100 block of Columbia Avenue won’t be addressed until next year.
After a 2006 video inspection of the sanitary sewer system in East and West Trail, Sunningdale and Shaver’s Bench, several pipes were identified as Category 5 (worst) and red flagged as needing to be replaced.
From 2008 to 2012, the city began either relining or replacing several kilometres of the pipe system that is 60 to 80 years old.