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Engineering work awarded in ongoing effort to stabilize busy Salmon Arm road

City of Salmon Arm awards preliminary design engineering for section of Lakeshore Road
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A 2018 geotechnical review identified portions of Lakeshore Road between 10th and 20th Avenue at medium to high risk of catastrophic failure. (File photo)

An unstable section of Lakeshore Road will be the focus of additional engineering work needed for a preliminary redesign.

At its regular meeting of Feb. 22, Salmon Arm council awarded preliminary design engineering services work to Onsite Engineering Ltd. for $29,360 plus taxes.

This is part of the city’s ongoing effort to address stability concerns along Lakeshore between 10th and 20th Avenue NE.

“Lakeshore Road NE, between 10th and 20th, has some ongoing failures. I can see it when we drive down the road in all the crack sealing done over the years,” commented city engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen.

The work awarded, according to city staff, will involve the completion of a base plan and a shallow geotechnical assessment (including ongoing water table monitoring and location of existing storm drains), to expedite a detailed design process. It will also involve a geotechnical assessment focused on the water-main and storm sewer, both of which will be the focus of capital projects this year. The water line along Lakeshore is slated to be replaced and the storm sewer along 20th Avenue NE extended. The former is intended to reduce the likelihood of water-main failure, the latter risk related to drainage.

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A staff report to council noted that after a “multitude of failures over a short period of time,” the city commissioned a geotechnical report of the approximate four-kilometre stretch of road. The resulting 2018 report identified portions of road that posed a safety concern and were subject to “potential catastrophic failure.”

Subsequent to that, the city commissioned Onsite for a cost/benefit analysis of future rehabilitation options.

“This is for the geotechnical work needed to keep this moving forward,” said Niewenhuizen.

@SalmonArm
lachlan@saobserver.net

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