The long-awaited multi-million dollar redevelopment of Cave Avenue gets underway in spring.
The redevelopment, which has been on the capital books as far back as 1994, includes two 3.5-metre driving lanes, building a 1.5-metre sidewalk and moving lighting to the north side of the road. Plans for bike lanes were scrapped earlier this year based on public feedback.
Adrian Field, the Town of Banff’s engineering manager, said the plan is to have the final design completed by the end of January, then go to public tender sometime in February, with work to get underway in spring.
“We’re going through the design process and making minor changes,” he said. “We’re trying to save as many trees as we can and mitigate the impact on driveways.”
The approved budget for the project is $6.2 million, but final figures will be determined through the public tendering process.
Burying power lines and upgrading underground pipes are also part of the project. Existing connections to the woodland trail will be upgraded so they can be better maintained in winter.
Field said construction would be substantially completed by fall 2014, with a second lift of asphalt taking place in 2015 after a freeze-thaw cycle. “We have extensive plans to consult with residents during construction,” he said.
The design portion of the long-awaited Cave Avenue project was just one of 72 capital projects on the books for the Town of Banff in 2013. Altogether, the projects have a combined value of $30 million.
Field said there has been good progress made on the projects.
“We’re in good shape,” he said. “We’ve certainly had issues, especially with the floods. We’ve seen prices higher, or we haven’t even got pricing back in some cases. It shows us folks are busy and a bit of a warning sign for us in the next year.”
There was a bit of a hiccup with the Legacy Trail project along Norquay Road to Fenlands day-use area – to connect with Parks Canada’s section of the trail to Vermilion Lakes Road – when the initial tender price came in over the $423,000 budget.
“We got a ludicrously high price, and so in order to attract more respondents, we split the project into the key components of the trail and the bridge. We ended up being the general contractor,” said Field.
Field said the project is on budget and the trail portion has been completed. Design work on the bridge is also substantially finished.
“The bridge installation will take place in winter/spring 2014, with final trail connections being complete early summer,” he said.
One of the big projects for 2013 was Banff’s new $6.8 million pedestrian bridge/sanitary pipes project across the Bow River – which opened June 25, two months ahead of schedule and about $300,000 under budget.
