High River Town Council held a special meeting Tuesday, April 21, to sign off on the tenders for both the southwest berm and Centre Street reconstruction.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says both are very important, but they need to move fast on Centre Street.

"The Centre Street one is critical that we get that one going as fast as possible because with the business shut down and everything right now, the faster we can get going on that and try to do as much as we can while the businesses are closed is going to be less disruption for them going forward."

Snodgrass says right now they have crews replacing the bags along 12th Avenue west of the traffic circle and south on 88th Street.

He says we'll have to endure them for a little while yet.

"The berm won't be completed until later this Fall. So, we still have to have protection for the southwest area of town and that continues to be priority number one to make sure we're protected from any flood risk."

One issue is the poor shape of 12th Avenue west of the traffic circle coming out of the winter and years of neglect since the flood.

Snodgrass says they can't do much about it right now, as it's going to get worse before it gets better.

"It's probably the roughest road in town. But, it's not impassible. We can get through it for a few more months now and don't waste money on patching it. Because once those big trucks go on it they'll just bust those patches out anyway. Just be careful on it and then once the berm construction's done then 12th Avenue gets completely re-done with deep utilities and the whole road is rebuilt as well."

Snodgrass says both the southwest berm and Centre Street construction should be wrapped up by Fall.

 

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