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By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com
With August halfway over, many summer capital projects are well underway within the Municipal District of Taber and many of them are looking at completion before the end of the year.
Like the previous meeting, council was informed of the many infrastructure projects that were ongoing during their regular meeting held on Aug. 11.
The first was the Range Road 18-2 project which was funded 50 per cent through the Provincial Resource Road Program.
“The VRP feedlot road, that is completed. We have a little bit of seeding to do yet,” explained Jack Dunsmore, contract project manager.
West Township 8 Range 16 Drainage Project saw construction begin on the wetland portion with completion slated for the end of the month.
“We will probably be completing the wetland portion by the end of August. Their plan is to start coming in and planting here by (Aug. 18). Full completion is set for the end of October,” added Dunsmore.
This project was 90 per cent funded by the Alberta Community Resilience Program.
The base pave on Range Road 16-5 is still on schedule with construction beginning at the start of this week.
“That is going to start probably (Aug. 17). They plan on moving in on (Aug. 14),” continued Dunsmore.
A pre-construction meeting was also held in early August and area landowners in proximity were notified of the project.
Work at the Vauxhall Rest Area has finally commenced after the pre-construction meeting was held in late July with the project beginning shortly after.
“It is well underway. They have done the storm pond and they are starting to do sub-grade prep now on the base pave portion to fit. They started putting in utility lines (on Aug. 10),” stated Dunsmore.
The plan started with under-ground utility work and sub-grade preparation of the paved parking lot area after the storm pond is finished.
The Town of Vauxhall and Alberta Transportation have also been involved and invited to all site meetings, and the Vauxhall Gun Club has been kept informed of the project’s current status, as they were originally leasing that land from the M.D. of Taber.
The completion date is set for Oct. 31, 2020 with Alberta Transportation paying the first $1.5 million of the project total.
As far as the Range Road 17-4, Barnwell north to Huckleberry road project is concerned, administration reports it is working with a consultant on the design.
While there is a possibility the project could be ready for tender come fall, administration indicated there was a good chance they could receive a better result if they tendered over the winter instead.
The Red Trail chip seal project was also touched on.
“It has shifted over to chip seal and with the chip seal projects, I’ve been working with Stu (Weber, director of public works) on that and those can be easily tendered. Any of those shovel ready projects could be tendered this fall for 2021 construction,” continued Dunsmore.
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