Work will begin on a stretch of Highway 56 later this month as the town prepares to have the bumpy stretch of road paved next year.
The highway, which, as a provincial highway, is tended to by the province, was slated to have another section repaved this year by the province. The town, realizing that underground utilities needed to be upgraded, asked the province to defer the repair money a year so it could replace the utilities first and allow the ground to settle before paving.
The province agreed.
With that done, the town put out a tender for the utility replacement project but only had one company, Urban Dirtworks, submit a bid. The entire project, including construction and engineering, is slated at $468,000; originally it would have been higher, but the town was able to negotiate with Urban Dirtworks, lowering the initial bid by several thousand dollars.
“The highway is in really rough shape,” Greg Switenky, CAO for the Town of Stettler, said. “It's an Alberta highway, so we've been on them about fixing it.”
According to Switenky, the province has plans for Highway 56 but it will be some time before they get to them, so the town had resigned itself to the state of the highway. Then, last year, the province contacted them to have the town repave a stretch of the highway, north of Highway 12.
“This year, (the province) came back with more money for us to finish it,” he said, adding that the province was happy to defer the money one year so the underground work could be completed.
Golden girl
Councillors welcomed Stettler track and field athlete Dacia Gramlick to council, where she was recognized for her golden summer season of competition.
Gramlick first won gold in high jump at the provincial games earlier this year, then went onto the Alberta Summer Games where she won gold in the heptathlon, taking gold in the seven events that make up the heptathlon itself.
“She's just one heck of an athlete,” Switenky said.