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Town council sends new school road back to drawing board

At a special meeting on Sept. 13, the Town of Athabasca’s council asked Tagish Engineering to redo a road portion of the new school plan, noting extreme costs. At town council’s Sept.
The roads and their cost came up at the Town of Athabasca’s special council meeting Sept. 13, as well as the regular meeting Sept. 6.
The roads and their cost came up at the Town of Athabasca’s special council meeting Sept. 13, as well as the regular meeting Sept. 6.

At a special meeting on Sept. 13, the Town of Athabasca’s council asked Tagish Engineering to redo a road portion of the new school plan, noting extreme costs.

At town council’s Sept. 6 meeting, Francis presented updates on the new Edwin Parr Composite School project and asked for information regarding a road extension on University Drive up to the site. A special council meeting was scheduled for Sept. 13 to discuss the matter further.

Tagish Engineering had provided two quotes to the town for the University Drive Roadway Extension, one for $971,301.38 and the other for $889,050.94 – numbers that were unexpectedly high for town councillors.

“We have to look at some ways to cut the costs,” said town Coun. Tim Verhaeghe on Sept. 13. “Because this really hit us right between the eyes. We were all surprised by this.”

Tagish Engineering senior project manager Steven Kennedy spoke at the council meeting on Sept. 13, and said he had assumed the paved, curb-and-gutter road leading up to a roundabout between the school and Multiplex – a “first entrance” – were “a requirement.”

Tagish had also included paved, curb-and-gutter, a “standard urban” road costs in the plan for the road to the “second entrance.”

“Is there an option to go to a rural section?” he said. “That then would provide you with your bus access still, but it’s just a gravel road. It’s not curb-and-gutter. It’s not your full standard road.”

Aspen View School Division superintendent Mark Francis was also at the meeting, and he said paved or curb-and-gutter roads were “absolutely no requirement.”

“A trail we can get a bus over-top of is all,” he said. “We have never requested curb-and-gutter. We’ve never requested paving.”

On Sept. 6, Francis noted that the road itself was not a pressing matter – it will not be needed until “busses start rolling” – but the way the road is constructed could impact how deep the storm sewer has to be installed and where land services will be tied in.

“We just need to know the plans, (for) the contractor, of course, before the snow flies,” Francis said.

Kennedy said a new estimate could be provided in time for town council’s meeting Sept. 20.

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