The City of Moncton’s aging operations centre across from the Coliseum on Worthington Avenue will be upgraded at a cost of $16.6 million dollars.
City council’s decision was unanimous at Monday’s regular meeting.
Councillor Daniel Bourgeois expressed relief the upgrades will finally happen since nearby residents were raising concerns about noise and dust from the site the last time he sat on council.
“The dust will be fixed whenever we get this operations centre and move things around – so that’s been seven years. So I thank them for their patience and I also ask forgiveness.”
Councillor Bryan Butler represents the surrounding area, which is Ward 3.
“It’s been very, very terrible the last few years up there on Worthington Avenue and around Hillary (Crescent) and those places. Anyone with outside furniture, it was just getting covered with dirt all the time.”
The two other options presented were relocating the ops centre to another site and build a new facility at $36 million or moving public works to a new location at $22 million.
Both options were more expensive than the one recommended by city staff and chosen by council.
Upgrades at the ops centre will happen in four phases with work starting this spring and continuing until 2025.
