Sewer contract awarded

Local construction firm BYZ Enterprises has earned another major street project with the City of Medicine Hat.

Council on Monday approved a winning bid of $5.35 million to the company for environmental utility replacement on Seventh Street NW and Fifth Street SW this summer.

Replacing water and sewer pipes beneath the road surface is part of a general rehabilitation program the city has put in place to deal with a backlog of aging infrastructure.

Five companies submitted bids, though values are not included in information presented with the item, in the process that closed in mid-February.

Last year, BYZ won the contract for major overhaul of S. Railway Street between Kinsgway Avenue and Scholten Hill, and is set to complete the complicated project this spring.

In late 2015, BYZ took over similar sewer replacement work on Fourth Avenue SE after the city dismissed the original contractor.

The city’s aging infrastructure renewal program earmarks $6.9 million over two years to replace the oldest sewer lines, and a similar amount to replace water lines at the some time in the same roadways.

Makeshift road to close

Council on Monday went through first reading of a bylaw to close a makeshift road on two roads beneath the Sixth Avenue Hill.

Tenth Street SE, adjacent to Kingsway Avenue, has been connected to Ninth Street by a road allowance on the slope that over the years has become a turnaround for residents and city garbage trucks. However, over time the dirt track has migrated onto a private lot, a committee heard in February, and the private owner wants to build on the vacant space.

Administrators suggested redetermining the boundary and then redesignating the city’s land as a public utility lot.

Second and third readings of the landuse change, and accompanying public hearing, will be heard at council’s late March meeting.