MOOSE JAW — A cracked sidewalk on Redland Avenue and construction on Fairford Street West were some inquiries city council had for city administration during the July 14 regular meeting.
Coun. Chris Warren said city crews replaced a sidewalk near 1153 Redland Avenue in 2017, but last year, returned to that street to perform underground water and sewer work that forced them to dig up the street. He noted that an excavator lowered its equipment stabilizers onto the sidewalk and cracked it.
Warren then wondered what process city hall used to identify and determine the damage that city crews or contractors caused to the surrounding infrastructure while making underground repairs.
Furthermore, he wondered if either party was responsible for repairing the damages and whether the sidewalk near 1153 Redland Avenue and the adjacent road were in line for repairs.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said he received an email about that location and was able to find a record of the sewer work that occurred there almost 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, he noted that his department is tracking many locations — “a couple hundred of them” — that require sidewalk repairs that the city has not maintained in the past. These were part of a concrete replacement contract that the engineering branch handled over the years.
“Behind that, there are locations such as this address where an outrigger went down and cracked the sidewalk,” Harlton said.
“And while that’s well below the deficiency threshold — a deflection of 40 millimetres for replacement — it’s a location where city resources went to the location and cracked the sidewalk in the course of (the) repair,” he remarked.
Continuing, Harlton said he directed his operations team to address the sidewalk on Redland Avenue with a partial replacement next year. Moreover, he intends to pay for the repairs through the sewer and water utility since crews were working on that related infrastructure.
Harlton added that the damage to the sidewalk didn’t have to happen and his team is looking into the situation internally.
Fairford Street construction
Coun. Dawn Luhning inquired about whether city hall planned to pave the 0 block of Fairford Street West now that contractors had completed the replacement of cast iron pipes, or whether the road would be left as is.
Harlton replied that his department plans to leave the road “to sit for a season” and then potentially mill it in either 2026 or 2027.
Luhning also inquired about city crews’ efforts to fill cracks and potholes with asphalt and whether they cleaned up the areas after they completed their work. She noted that some spots do not appear as if staff swept up afterward or look “as nicely as they could be,” while she thought this was something city hall could investigate.
Harlton replied that he would provide a written response for a future council meeting.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, July 28.
