Skip to content

Wadena looking at installing curb extensions on Main Street

As the highways ministry is preparing to repaving the highways in Wadena, the town’s council is looking at its own improvement.
Wadena Town Hall

As the highways ministry is preparing to repaving the highways in Wadena, the town’s council is looking at its own improvement.

“We’ve had a lot of requests of our residents and ratepayers to increase pedestrian safety and reduce people going through that area at high speeds, so council is looking at adding curb extensions,” said Ferne Hebig, the town’s administrator.

The extensions, which were discussed at the Nov. 5 meeting, would bump out the sidewalks at intersections along Highway 35, which serves as Wadena’s main street. The bump outs would provide a visual cue for motorists to slow down.

The town would be on the hook for the cost of curb extensions, while the province is on the hook for repaving. The hope would be to time both projects in a manner that costs are minimized.

“That would be best at springtime as we get the highway done, whether it’s right before or right after,” Hebig said.

The town still has to determine what the cost of the extensions would be.

 

Infrastructure condition

The town will soon know what condition everything it owns is in, from sewer lines to the big facilities.

Hebig said the infrastructure condition assessment being done by Associated Engineering is an important tool when to comes to long-term planning.

“It’s very difficult to plan to replace a facility when we don’t know what condition it’s currently, how long we might have to replace that and what the costs are going to be down the road to replace it.”

The assessment would be used for creating an asset management plan. The federal government is requiring all municipalities to have such a plan if they want to receive any funding from the gas tax program.

The major item left to do on the assessment is to run a camera through sewer lines to determine their condition, something that’s important to complete before any roads are repaved.

The assessment is expected to be complete in mid-December.