City Crews begin to fill in open excavation sites around Prince Rupert

The excavation site on Seventh Avenue East will be the first to be
backfilled and the road reopened in the days to come

Prince Rupert City council and senior staff members  have seemingly heard the concerns of many in the community over the status of open excavations, with an announcement today that outlines some of the work ahead on those areas which have seen closed city streets for weeks and  in some cases months.

Earlier this week, we noted of some concerns from residents related to safety and emergency response, with a recent incident on Seal Cove Circle highlighting the situation.

This morning the City provided some background to how they will be approaching the backfill project. Towards the infrastructure issues Mayor Pond observed of the following.

Crews have started to backfill the holes from water main breaks on 7th Avenue East this week and will be moving into other areas (Frederick, Kootenay) over the following days so roadways can be reopened. 

This is an interim measure to improve local traffic access while we await word on funding to complete the full scope of repairs in these areas. 

It should be noted that this backfilling will not be repaved in the near term, as the full section of pipe along that corridor must be replaced and the holes will be re-excavated for that work.

Towards the infrastructure issues and inconvenience to residents Mayor Pond observed of the following.

“We understand that this is absolutely an inconvenience to the community, and especially to those neighbourhoods that have been dug up.  Prince Rupert is heading into a critical period of renewal, and to get to where we need to be, there will be unavoidable disruptions. We commit to doing our best to minimize them, and appreciate the community’s understanding while we do this essential work to prevent the potential collapse of our water system.” -- Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond

Today's announcement also made note of the challenges the city is facing as it seeks out further funding to continue its progress on infrastructure work.

The City is currently pursuing an unprecedented infrastructure renewal effort to replace 26 km of water and sewer pipes – a project still awaiting news on a Federal grant for $82 Million. There will also be mobilization time to account for once the funding is announced. Once the project starts in earnest, it is expected to take a minimum of 3 years to complete all priority replacements. 

This work will be extensive, and will not only replace water and sewer lines, but also the roadways above. A major contributor to the poor condition of our roads is leaking pipes beneath them, which erodes subsurface and paving above. Targeting these most critical areas will leave us with fully new roadways in significant portions of the community, and will allow us to redirect capital roads spending to replacements in other areas, rather than paving over emergency repairs which has been the priority historically. 

Unfortunately, in the meantime, if any replacements are conducted in failing areas, we would lose all eligibility for Federal funding. This would transfer the full burden of these major costs to taxpayers. Although staff and Council have been expending significant effort to get additional revenues through a Resource Benefits Agreement, resolution to port tax caps and payments in lieu of taxes, and development of Watson Island, potential revenues from these sources have not been resolved.

Today's update did not offer up any potential timeline towards a reply from the Federal government towards the city's request for funding for its infrastructure needs.

You can review the full statement from the City from the civic website or their Social Media stream.

Some of our past note on the city's infrastructure challenges can be reviewed here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.