High River council has taken steps to move forward with the southwest berm.

At its last meeting before the election Tuesday, councillors decided to go with the alignment that runs from the west end of 12 Avenue along the road and then south, basically to 1 Street west, along Centre Street south of the town.

They also voted to offer $3,630,500 to the primary landowner which Mayor Craig Snodgrass says includes an agreement for friendly expropriation.

"The Section 30 says, yes, the landowner agrees to the berm project, but wants to negotiate the financial component of it, so that's where we're at right now, he says.

He says there are two components to the financial offer, $616,000 for the purchase of approximately 23 acres of land where the berm will site and the balance is compensation for damages of just over $3 million. The area does have an Area Structure Plan on it so the landowner will have to be compensated for that.

The Mayor says there are no plans to raise 12 Avenue.

"We did look at the option of raising 12th, to act as a berm, much like 498 (Ave.)," he says. "The biggest issue with that is all the adjoining streets that are running north and south, when you raise 12 Avenue, you've got to slope each one of those streets up and lots of them were half a block to more than a block of tapering that access to 12th and when you do that you start impacting all the houses along there."

He does say after the berm's in 12 Avenue will be repaired.

The hockey stick alignment follows the yellow dotten line at the top, veers at an angle following the link to link again with the yellow and red dotted line and then finishes with the purple section.

The cost of the original "reverse S curve" alignment was pegged at $8.5 to $11.5 million while the hockey stick alignment is $6.5 million.

Chris Delanney with ISL Engineering which did the report explained to council that the original "reverse S curve" would have been a lot more work, because of the amount of dirt that would have to be moved and then moved again and that it was without much greater benefit than the hockey stick alignment.

Snodgrass says the project will still have to go through regulatory processes but hopes the shovels can go in the ground about this time next year.

 

Send us your news tips, story ideas and comments at news@highriveronline.com