This coverage is from Terrace Standard and the original article can be found here.
The value of provincial grants is being felt this year not only by the visible work to rebuild Thomas St. complete with sidewalks on the Bench but also by something not visible to the naked eye – a new location for the outfall pipe at the city’s sewage treatment plant.
While the city is using a portion of its provincial Northwest B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance grant for the Thomas St. work, it is allocating the majority of a mostly forgotten provincial grant to move the pipe through which treated effluent flows into the Skeena River from its Graham Ave. treatment plant,
Announced in March 2023, the provincial Growing Communities Fund was worth $1 billion and when divided among B.C.’s local governments, Terrace’s share came to $4.633 million. Of that amount $4.088 million of that is being used to help meet the pipe project which could cost more than $5 million.
The current pipe, which is buried under river rock and protected by concrete blanket-type armouring, needs to be moved because during high river water in 2021, a 30-metre section “lost its armouring, leaving the pipe fully exposed to the forces of the Skeena River,” a background memo prepared for city council stated.
An attempt at a fix in 2022 by putting pre-cast concrete blocks over the pipe didn’t work, causing the city to commission an engineering report in 2023.
That report came up with three options of varying estimated costs with city staffers recommending the option which was carried the least anticipated expense.
But the option would also place the pipe closer to the treatment lagoons and in a deeper and more protected section of the river channel.
Detailed design is nearing completion with a contractor expected to be sought and chosen over the course of the summer.
Because low water is needed, construction is scheduled for the fall and into next spring. Timing is also contingent on the city successfully maneuvering through a complicated series of senior government environmental and other permits and approvals.
Grants are also being used this as part of the city’s capital works program this year to plan for future year projects.
Design work continues for a replacement of water and sewer pipes underneath the 4600 Block of Lakelse and for a reimagining of the block’s surface.
That work won’t start until 2026 with the provincial benefits alliance grant contributing $5.4 million to the project.
As for other capital spending this year, $1 million has been allocated for pavement overlays, $220,000 to resurface sidewalks and $50,000 to replace the library’s airconditioning system. Long time residents will remember that city freeman Vesta Douglas donated the money so a first-ever airconditioning system could be installed at the library.
The Elks Park playground on Agar will have $250,000 worth of improvements done through profits from the city’s community forest and $50,000, also from the community forest, will be spent on touching up he Xpilaxha Charles and Emma Nelson Trail (formerly the Grand Trunk Pathway) from Eby to Kenney.
Vehicle purchases include a 1-ton truck for $129,470, a half-ton for $93,500 and a dump truck for $360,000.
In all, $16.765 million worth of capital spending is on the books.
