For the Townsman
The last and the largest of the projects in the City of Cranbrook’s 2017 capital roads program is wrapping up, with paving and sidewalk work on 2nd Street South scheduled to be completed this week.
The 2nd Street project itself amounts to a typical annual capital program budget for Cranbrook, however, this year with the additional $10 million dollars in the budget through borrowing, it was just one of many roads being upgraded in the City.
“Council and I are very pleased with the results of this year’s capital road works program,” says Mayor Lee Pratt. “We are receiving a lot of positive comments and thank you’s from residents for delivering on our promise to fix the infrastructure and roads in Cranbrook.
“We also want to assure residents that we are going to continue with programs like this in the years to come.”
Mike Matejka, the city’s Project Manager, said there were a lot of construction initiatives on the go for city staff this season.
“This was the busiest year on record for the City when you look at how many streets were worked on and how many properties have new roads being constructed outside their front door,” says Matejka. “The public was extremely understanding of the impact this work causes and our contractors delivered when we asked for a higher level of public communication and engagement.”
This year’s program was a mix of complete reconstruction project involving water and sewer utilities, as well as many re-paving projects throughout town. The City used its ever improving asset management capabilities to not only identify the priority projects, but to also ensure the design and investments were as efficient as possible to get the most work done without sacrificing quality and lifespan of the final product.
The City of Cranbrook worked with 3 separate primary contractors and 3 separate consulting engineers to complete this year’s substantial Capital Works Program. These include BA Blacktop, Mackay Contracting, B.E. Civil, McElhanney Consulting Services, Urban Systems and ISL. Many other local sub-contractors and traffic control companies were also involved.
With Council’s direction to get as much priority infrastructure work done as possible with the borrowed funds, the City worked very hard starting in the fall of 2016 to set the stage for a successful construction season, including updating the project delivery process and engaging more with local contractors and materials suppliers.
The City of Cranbrook and all of its contractors thank the residents, businesses and visitors for their patience and understanding while all of the road construction work was completed.
