A cornerstone of the City of Flin Flon’s infrastructure renewal program has been pushed into next year.
City council had budgeted $400,000 this year to replace the sewer and water pipes beneath Green Street from Oak Avenue to Elm Street.
But with city crews behind schedule due to an abnormally long and cold winter, Director of Works and Operations Rick Bacon said the project won’t be completed this year.
“This winter was a killer, financially and timewise,” said Bacon, noting that there were likely more than double the usual number of water line freeze-ups.
“The Pas had issues, Thompson had issues, Snow Lake had issues. Prince Albert had tonnes of issues, so it was the whole region that had issues they’re attributing to the cold winter.”
Replace
If weather permits, Bacon said city crews hope to at least replace the piping on Oak Avenue from Parkway Boulevard to Green Street.
The plan would be to finish the larger, remaining portion – Green Street from Oak to Elm – sometime in 2015.
While the winter of 2013-14 produced numerous line freeze-ups, Flin Flon escaped the season relatively unscathed compared to some other communities.
In The Pas, residents of an entire block were without running water for at least five weeks. Frozen pipes also left hundreds of Winnipeggers temporarily without water.
Bacon said Flin Flon ran temporary connections to homes that weren’t able to get water.
He said the city is also more experienced in contending with frozen pipes than most communities.
“We’ve been dealing with it for the entire life of our system,” Bacon said.
City council had asked the province for disaster relief to help pay for the unusually high number of pipe breaks and freeze-ups, but the request was rejected.
The now-delayed pipework on Green Street will be a continuation of work completed in 2012 and 2013 that saw lines between Phelan Avenue and Elm Street replaced.
