Jasper’s “old town” is slated for major utility upgrades that will bring its waterlines up to snuff with today’s materials and technologies.
The neighbourhoods of Colin Crescent, Balsam Avenue and Bonhomme Street have some of Jasper’s oldest utilities—including four inch cast iron waterlines—and have been on the municipality’s radar for repairs for a number of years.
As well as utility lines, the project may also include changes to Colin Crescent to deal with some of the congestion created by parking on the narrow street. But that will require a public engagement process.
“There is a lot of parking congestion on a section of that roadway; I’ve heard it’s a concern to some residents,” said Bruce Thompson, director of operations for the municipality. “We’ll be looking into that and in fact looking into that issue will comprise of engagement with the public on that roadway. I need to glean some local knowledge and find out what the issues are.”
Thompson said he’s not sure when that engagement process will begin, but he hopes it will be soon.
This summer WSP Canada Inc., an engineering consultant hired by the municipality, has been working on a design for the utility lines, in anticipation of undertaking the work in 2015.
The consultant has put cameras down the sewer lines, surveyed the area and completed “ground truthing” to determine just what’s hiding under the alleyways and roads, as well as to determine an appropriate design and the cost of the work.
Like with the 800 block of Connaught Drive—which is currently receiving new utility lines—residents in the Colin-Bonhomme neighbourhoods have valid petitions for alleyway paving. The petitions indicate that the residents backing onto the alleys are willing to pay a local improvement tax to cover the cost of paving.
In order for a petition to be valid, at least two thirds of the homeowners affected—making up at least 50 per cent of the assessed property value—have to be in favour of the local improvement project.
Once the municipality receives a valid petition, a neighbourhood won’t immediately see its alleyway paved. Rather, residents have to wait until council approves a capital budget including utility upgrades for their neighbourhood.
In the 2014 capital budget, $125,000 was allocated to the design and engineering of the utilities for the Colin-Bonhomme neighbourhoods, and in the proposed budget for 2015, there is $1 million for the actual work. Those funds haven’t yet been approved.
According to Thompson, the municipality chooses to do both utility upgrades and paving at once to ensure the utilities will withstand decades of use. That guarantees that the new pavement won’t have to be disturbed by a waterline or sewer line break.
If the capital funding is approved for the project next winter, the new waterlines will likely be installed using a technique called pipe bursting, where the old waterline is used as a conduit for a new pipe.
Pipe bursting is being used on the 800-block of Connaught and, so far, Thompson said he’s pleased with the outcome.
“We’ve found it to be quite advantageous to try the pipe bursting on a relatively smaller project to see how it works before we decide to use it for this.
“[But] with what’s gone on so far, that looks like it would be the method of choice again,” he said, noting that it’s much less intrusive than digging up the entire alleyway to get down to the pipes.
Nicole Veerman
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