A $4.4-million sewer system upgrade for the city’s growing southeast sector will take place two years earlier than originally planned.

Recent planning work for the sewer upgrade project determined the optimal and most cost-effective alignment would be along sections of 28th Street North and 26th Avenue North, which are scheduled to be twinned in 2014.

City council today approved advancing the sewer upgrade to 2013 from 2015 in order to prevent the need for future road reconstruction along the two northeast roads which are to be twinned. Those reconstruction costs would otherwise be between $1.5 million and $2.4 million, according to a city press release.
“Advancing this sewer project makes sense ” said Ald. Faron Ellis. :Alternatively, it would make absolutely no sense to twin these northeast roads and then dig them up later to install these new sewer lines, which will provide additional sanitary sewer capacity necessary for future development in southeast Lethbridge.”
Recent work on a servicing strategy for southeast Lethbridge determined the 26th Avenue North/28th Street North route is the most cost-effective and preferred alignment, mainly because it makes optimal use of existing sewer lines. The preferred sewer alignment had not been determined in 2010 when the road twinning projects were approved in the city’s current capital budget.
The sewer upgrade will be funded from the city’s offsite levy account, which is funded by private developers to cover growth-related infrastructure costs.