More work is being done on the roadways around the Cenovus Energy Hub, including the addition of two new traffic lights.
Council passed a motion awarding the contract of the 36 St. and 40 Ave. upgrades to Knelsen Sand and Gravel Ltd. in the amount of $1,801,132.50.
Coun. Michael Diachuk opened up question period by asking if curbs were being added to 40 Ave.
“The work on 40th, will that include the curbing? Or are we just doing paving on the road? I’m just thinking if you turn right and go south on 40 Ave. off of 44 Ave. we don’t have any curbing on any of that. Is curbing going to be part of the work being done or are we just putting pavement,” he said.
James Rogers, senior manager, capital infrastructure, explained what some of the work will entail in the upcoming project.
“As part of the 40 Ave. work, which is part of the street improvement program, we will simply be patching the road, putting an overlay on top and re-establishing the pavement markings,” he said.
“As part of the Cenovus Energy Hub offsite projects, which is at the intersection, we will have select pieces of curbing so we can put appropriate curb ramps and accessibility ramps to delineate the road from where pedestrians are supposed to be. We are not going to urbanize 40 Ave. from 41 St. to 44 St.”
Rogers says there are still properties along 40 Ave. that need to be developed.
Diachuk says the portion that runs north and south along the casino should have curbs built as part of the offsite levy.
“There’s quite a bit of infrastructure that would need to go in just to urbanize that small section of road, I think it’s more advantageous that we wait until the entire portion of that road is ready for urbanization and do all the work at the same time,” said Don Stang, executive manager of operations, City of Lloydminster
He says projects can get expensive when you start to bring in storm infrastructure to urbanize areas.
“We believe we have enough road there to move traffic back and forth, we do urbanize at 36 St. into the new hub, we do urbanize 41 St. at the back of the casino,” said Stang, explaining 40 Ave. is too large to do the urbanization at this point.
Diachuk was quick to fire back about the look of the area.
“It looks horrible,” he said. “It’s not the only one, we have the other one that goes by the Cenovus Energy building where there’s no curbs on that road as well, you go in there and it looks like a backroad that’s been paved.”
Administration clarified as part of the offsite levy work 40 Ave. is getting urbanized, Stang, however, says there’s not currently enough funds to urbanize 40 Ave.
“There is some work around the casino that is outstanding,” said Stang.
He says as they do this project and complete the ditch work and trails, the area will look significantly better.
As part of the work, two new stoplights will be installed. They will be installed at the intersections of 41 St. and 40 Ave., and 36 St. and 40 Ave.
The work will also include, 41 St. urbanization, 36 St. extension, 39 Ave. water main twinning and 41 St. water and sanitary sewer main upsizing.
Read more: Cenovus Energy Hub construction update
