There's a lot of questions still swirling about the progress, or the lack of progress, around the southwest dike in High River.

Riley McKerracher with the Town says the process is slow but it's going forward.

"We are moving ahead with detailed design and starting to work out the details on that," McKerracher says. "We have contractors lined up to bid the work so we've done a pre-screening of contractors and selected a couple that are going to bid on the work and are anxious to get going on it."

He says the government has deemed the application complete and once it's been circulated to other government departments it will go to the public for its comments and concerns. After that the Environment ministry will evaluate those concerns and see if they need to be investigated and then a permit can be issued.

He says there are a number of different scenarios that could happen if the project doesn't receive approval.

"We could, if this was not to be approved, we could resort back to the original hockey stick alignment, it's not preferred, it does create a number of challenges on its own so it's not a preferred option but it is there," he says. "And on the southwest dike alignment that we've shown now there's actually some flexibility and some options with that alignment as well, particularly on the east end."

Once the work reaches a point where the town is protected, the  bags of gravel on 12 Avenue will be pulled out.