On April 27, Peace River town council was asked to allot additional capital funding to its 101st Street Storm Sewer Repair Capital Project.
The tenders for the storm sewer and roadway repair were received in time for the Feb. 12 deadline, with four submissions quoting prices ranging from $1.1 million to $1.5 million. Council allocated $1.1 million in its capital budget, but just over $15,000 was spent from the budget to prepare for the project.
“The competitively tendered pricing would have brought the project in over budget,” explains Mayor Shelly Shannon, who says council chose to add an additional $200,000 to the project budget.
“The funds will be taken from the tax supported capital reserves which are sitting with a positive balance, so no new debt will be required to complete this project.”
Shannon says a section of the road is currently closed as a result of the storm sewer issue, so a quick repair will allow the whole road to be open to vehicles.
“The storm sewer issue has resulted in a lane closure in this location,” she says.
“Issues with completing the work primarily revolve around it being a challenging location to complete construction: it is narrow, access is limited, a lot of the work will occur on the slope. In addition, some utilities had to be relocated to complete the work.”
Council’s decision was unanimous in adding additional funds to the project.
“This particular project was already budgeted in the 2026 capital budget; however, we needed to increase the budget when pricing was received,” Shannon notes.
“This doesn’t impact tax rates as this is being funded from capital reserves.”
Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter