Majority of work on Woodworth Dam to take place in 2020

The status of construction of the Woodworth Dam made for a short question
at Monday's City Council Session

The status of the Woodworth Lake Dam project made for a short inquiry from Councillor Barry Cunningham at Monday's Prince Rupert City Council session.

With Mr. Cunningham seeking some guidance from staff on the timeline of the much anticipated second stage of the city's ambitious water infrastructure program, noting that it's a topic that people in the community keep approaching him about.

The topic came up following a presentation from Corinne Bomben, the City's Chief Financial Officer who delivered the financial notes of the city's July Financial Variance Report.

And while the CFO did not specifically mention the dam in her short review for Council Monday evening,  it was mentioned in the written report that accompanied the Agenda for Monday's session.

The new Woodworth Dam project that was budgeted for this year will mostly be constructed next year and so the majority of this Water Capital budget item will be carried-forward to 2020.

In response to Mr. Cunningham's question on the timeline, she observed that some of the work would be started in 2019, but the  bulk of the project will move forward in 2020.

She also noted that Council had discussed an amendment to the Five Year Financial plan at their Special Council session of last week.

As part of that amendment it was noted in the report that rather than proposing to spend $19 million in 2019, $2 million is expected to be spent this year, with the remainder moved to 2020. Adding at the time that there would be no impact to ratepayers from the amendment.

Most of the work on the Woodworth Dam will take place in 2020

On Monday, there were no follow up questions from Council members as to why the project planned for 2019 had seemingly shifted its timeline, and there was also no discussion as to what kind of work would take place over the next three months through the fall rainy season.

As well, no one sought out some background as to the timeline for the project as it moves forward in 2020 and when its anticipated that the dam will be completed.

You can review the short exchange between the Councillor and the CFO from the City's Video archive starting at the 54 minute mark.




Some background on the second phase of the city's water infrastructure program can be reviewed below:

September 2018 -- Woodworth Dam construction plans revised towards 2019
May 2019 -- Greetings from City Hall to your door this week; as Prince Rupert Property Tax bills arrive
January 2019 -- Monday's City Council Water Review - Much of the same territory of the last month covered; along with a few new notes to share
December 2018 -- Rising Dam costs, potential curbside recycling plans make for questions at Council session
Dcemver 2018 -- City Council to hear final list of Capital Spending plans for 2019 at Council session tonight
October 2018 -- Decision made on Woodworth Dam contract, as City Council approves bid recommendation from staff
October 2018 -- Council members to hear report on Woodworth Dam bids at tonight's City Council session
September 2018 -- Woodworth Dam construction plans revised towards 2019
July 2018 -- City seeks Requests for Proposals for Woodworth Dam construction


More on the range of infrastructure programs hosted by the City of Prince Rupert can be found from our archive page here.

Further details related to Monday's City Council session can be found from our Council Timeline, while more detail on some of the topics raised can be explored from our Council Discussion archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.