The District of Kent held its second public open house to view plans for the Agassiz Avenue Infrastructure Improvement Project at their Municipal Hall Council Chambers last Wednesday. The district was awarded $1.1 million through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund to commence with the much needed upgrades.
The project has been on the district’s radar for decades and is long overdue according to mayor and council.
“This is something else that is quite overdue for a couple of reasons, mainly, water and sewer and the safety of well water and old sewer pipe was what prompted us to apply for the grant in the first place,” said coun. Pranger. “Every municipality is in the same situation so if you can get some grant money..”
The upgrades will include replacing the existing sanitary main, upgrading the road and the area that is to be connected to the water’s distribution system. This will allow for the safe distribution of clean drinking water and enhanced fire protection.
Designs for the project were originally completed back in 2010, and those plans will see fruition over a two and half month construction phase that is scheduled to take place between May and August of 2017.
The project itself will be occurring along approximately 600 metres of Agassiz Avenue southwest from Pioneer Avenue.
“The project includes: replacing and upgrading the aging sanitary sewer ling along agassiz Avenue, upgrading the aging sanitary sewer line along Agassiz Avenue, upgrading the existing storm line, installing a new watermain along Agassiz Avenue, installing fire protection infrastructure including fire hydrants, reconstructing and upgrading the roadway; and, installing road structures including asphalt paving, concrete sidewalk on the southeast side, concrete curbs and storm drain gutters.”
The current sidewalk will be replaced with a 1.5-metre-wide concrete sidewalk on the same side as the existing sidewalk.
“This is a project of a list of projects to get our whole town on a water system and to update the infrastructure that’s aging,” said Mayor John Van Laerhoven. “There’s a real infrastructure deficit that we’re struggling with and sometimes it’s these non-glamourous underground projects that keep communities functioning properly that are very important — they’re not as popular as ribbon cutting ceremonies, but they’re very necessary.”
The project and projects like these are also about providing safety to the community.
“We need to make sure that fire departments can deliver volumes of water to the community when they need to deliver them, that’s a large part of our water system as well,” said Van Laerhoven.
For more information and to monitor the project please visit the district’s website at www.district.kent.bc.ca.