Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Town of Peace River is working steadily to repair damages caused by significant rainfall on 101st Street, with hopes to have all repairs completed by November.
“The Town had been monitoring the storm sewer located behind the Points West Building on 99 Street,” says Mayor Elaine Manzer. “The storm sewer had failed and required repairs. It was noted that the storm sewer had saturated the hill between 101 Street and 99 Street and caused the hill to slump.”
Manzer says that between August and October 2020, the Town had four inclinometers installed to analyse the slope movement. The monitors were put in place knowing that it was an area that would have to be watched. The massive rainfall earlier this summer put plans to repair into the forefront, and the Town has been working on a plan to repair the storm sewer line and a way to reroute a section of the stormwater line. Preliminary engineering designs were received in mid July for council to review.
“The slope has been monitored and no significant movement of the slope has been recorded,” says Manzer about the location prior to the heavy rainfall. “101 street was reduced to one-lane traffic in July 2022 when staff noted curb and gutter pulling away from the road structure as well as tension cracking on the paved surface. More data indicated that there was no significant movement of slope, and the street was opened to two-way traffic.”
The rainfall this July caused two significant washouts, so the Town once again put the location down to single-lane traffic. Single lane traffic will be kept in place until work is done on the storm sewer infrastructure.
“A request for tender to repair and reconstruct the stormwater infrastructure below 101 Street had been posted with a closing date of Sept. 1,” explains Manzer. “The work to be done on the storm water infrastructure included upgrading a portion of the existing infrastructure, cleaning and inspecting the remaining infrastructure to the outfall location, repairing, and upgrading slope failures and repairing the asphalt road damaged by the slope failure.”
Manzer says if all goes well, work is expected to be completed by this November.
“The contractor will be coordinating with ATCO Electric while doing the work on the stormwater infrastructure,” says Manzer. “Once the stormwater project is complete, the Town will continue to work on a stabilization plan for this slope.”
Manzer says this area has important underground infrastructure that has to function properly, and it is also a primary access to a southern neighbourhood, so it is a priority for the Town to monitor and evaluate options to ensure its stability.