CANMORE – The ongoing work to protect Canmore from potential floods through various mitigation projects has been given the go-ahead.
The Three Sisters Creek and Stone Creek projects are set to be put in motion in the coming years after Town council approved the 2023-24 budget Tuesday (Dec. 20).
The two pricey projects are part of the Town’s ongoing efforts to mitigate the risk of flooding in the community and comes after the significant damage in Canmore during the 2013 flood.
Combined, the design and construction of the two projects is $5.05 million. However, the bulk of the costs are being picked up through federal and provincial grants, leaving $575,000 coming from Town reserves.
“Most of this work is funded through federal and provincial grants,” said Whitney Smithers, the Town’s general manager of municipal infrastructure at a recent finance committee meeting.
The design work for Three Sisters Creek will take place in 2023 for $325,000, with $80,000 from federal grants, $108,000 from provincial grants and the remaining $137,000 from general capital reserves.
The project aims to design mitigation against flooding from the creek, with funding helping to support a full-time engineering position for a project engineer.
The project scope noted forensic studies and hazard and risk assessments have been finished, a short-term mitigation project had been completed in 2014 and a long-term mitigation project at the lower channel was done from 2016-18.
“There is significant economic risk to existing infrastructure and properties in the Three Sisters Creek development,” the project scope states. “Therefore, debris-floods need to be better managed in order to reduce the group safety risk… and reduce annualized damage expectations.”
Three Sisters Mountain Village Properties Limited (TSMVPL) completed several studies in 2019 and 2020 as part of the Three Sisters Village area structure plan (ASP) and the project could be expanded by TSMVPL for potential development, according to the project scope.
The construction of the mitigation project would start in 2024 for $4.225 million, which would see $1.66 million in federal funding, $2.217 million in provincial funding and $348,000 from general capital reserve.
The work would have a long offset berm on the east side of the creek on the upper channel and would have woody debris management.
“It’s anticipating future development in that area and the need to ready that area against the flood risk,” Smithers said.
The design for Stone Creek would begin in 2024 for $500,000. The bulk of the funding would come from grants with $200,000 from the federal government and $210,000 from the province and the remaining $90,000 from general capital reserve. The funding would help cover costs for the project engineer into 2024.
A short-term mitigation project was done in 2014 to lessen the risk, but the full project will considerably help protect the area from potential flooding.
The mitigation work would further protect the area from debris floods and create a deflection berm on the east bank of the creek to the maintenance access road.
“There is moderate economic risk to existing infrastructure and properties in the nearby development, not taking into account the impacts to the golf course,” according to the project scope. “Therefore, debris-floods and debris-flows need to be better managed in order to reduce the safety risk and reduce the annualized damage expectations.”
The Steep Creek hazard mitigation program proposes $2.5 million for each of 2025 and 2026, then $5 million in 2027.
In November, council was updated on significant delays for the Cougar Creek project that led the Town to file a notice of default against Flatiron Constructors Canada Ltd.
The Town and Flatiron Constructors Canada had 12 facilitated sessions last spring and a formal dispute process has started, which is expected to get a response early in 2023.
The new completion is estimated to be 2025 – two-and-a-half years behind schedule – and has led to delays in other steep creek mitigation projects.
Other areas identified for future or potential flood mitigation work are Stoneworks Creek in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, Pigeon Creek in the legally disputed Smith Creek ASP area and X,Y and Z creeks in the Peaks of Grassi area.
