A nearly $1.5-million multi-phase upgrade to the foundation of 10th Street SW is expected to begin next year.
“The road has now reached a point where it has been a significant – weekly – maintenance item, and where the vibration cannot be stopped without a full foundation rebuild, and this is a significant capital cost,” Dave Hill, the town's director of operational services, reported to council during a recent capital planning session.
“This isn't just a pothole fixing job.”
Residential traffic has increased on the road – which is located between Tim Hortons and Petro Canada – since Tim Hortons opened up last year. But it's the heavy truck traffic that breaks up the road, he said.
“In that road allowance and underneath that road there is a fair amount of organic soil that had just pit run dumped on top and every year we'd dump in more gravel and pit run for 50 years,” he explained.
“So what's happened is there's a lot of organic soil that's underneath the foundation of that road that allows for vibration to occur.”
The organic soil is sponge-like, he noted.
“When you drive a big, heavy truck over that, despite the fact you've got probably two feet or three feet or five feet of pit run on top of it, it vibrates. And when it vibrates it breaks up the surface.”
The project involves digging out the road and the organic soil, and reconstructing the road foundation, he said. Heavier pavement will be used to upgrade the road for industrial use, and there will be drainage ditches on both sides.
The project includes installing water and wastewater mains to loop town water and waste infrastructure through the southwest industrial area.
Town of Sundre officials plan to pay for the project with Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) Capital grant money over the next five years, but are also hoping to receive funding from Mountain View County.
Although 10th Street is completely owned by the town, officials say the majority of road users are county residents, as it sits on the border between the town and the county.
The road is a former county range road that has been absorbed within the urban area of Sundre as development took place over the last 50 years.
“At the current time, 10th Street services only two town-based taxpayer businesses – Tim Hortons and Water Valley General Contracting,” said Hill. “Over 30 county-based businesses in the west Sundre industrial park are also serviced via this road.”
He said more than 70 per cent of road users are coming and going from the county.
Because of the extent of the project, it has been divided into four phases.
The first phase – planned for 2015 – extends from Highway 27 to the laneway behind Tim Hortons, which Hill says is the “worst” part and will cost $494,000.
The second phase, which is planned for 2016, extends from Tim Hortons to 5th Avenue SW and will cost $428,000. The third phase, planned for 2019, extends from 5th Avenue SW to the next intersection south, which is Twp. Rd. 325A, and will cost $569,000.
Officials are also considering a Phase 4 for 2020, which would extend from Twp. Rd. 325A to the Mountain View County storage shelter. This phase would cost $1,309,000, creating a total project cost of roughly $2,800,000.
The source of funding for the optional Phase 4 would depend on the county's contribution to the project.
