The City of Moncton’s Director of Design and Engineering made a presentation to 16 people attending a public information session about the proposed replacement of road and sewer infrastructure on St. George Street.
Alcide Richard proposed a three phase schedule for the $11 million project, but before moving forward they want feedback from local business owners about how to be least disruptive.
“One year, take a break for a year, do another year, and then we’d end up being there for at least five years with two years of break in between,” says Richard. “Or we can go one year, the next year, the next year” and do it all in a row.
Phase 1, as proposed, would be reconstruction of St. George from King Street to Robinson Street, at an estimated cost of $4 million in 2020-2021; Phase 2 runs from Robinson to Weldon Street for $3.5 million in 2022; Phase 3 is Weldon to Vaughan Harvey Boulevard with a $3.5 million pricetag, and to be completed in 2023-2024.
He says that schedule is up for discussion and can be changed as he mentioned to accommodate local resident and business owner needs.
“So it kinda makes sense to do one phase, and another phase, and another phase,” says Richard. “[It] could be broken up into four phases instead of three, and that’s the kind of thing we’re going to be looking at.”
Richard also described the costing right now as ‘crystal balling’, because it is based off “right now, it’s based on average pricing for a project that we’ve done like this over the last three or four years on a square metre basis.”
He says the $11 million estimate is based on 2017 dollars.
Richard says whether the work is done sooner, or later, it is necessary as the water and sewer pipes underneath the street are approximately one hundred years old and must be replaced as they’ve reached the end of their useful life span.
He stressed this proposal is only preliminary, and they are actively seeking input from the public about how to reduce the impact on daily life.
