WATCH ABOVE: Residents in Mill Woods hoping for relief from road delays and future floods will have to wait longer, as a $75 million drainage project has been delayed. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — A major flood mitigation project in Mill Woods has been delayed nearly a year after the discovery of “unanticipated poor ground conditions.”
Construction on the storm tunnel project in the area of 23 Avenue and 91 Street has come to a halt after crews hit soil so saturated it’s like quicksand.
“We do geotechnical investigations before construction starts and with the geotechnical investigation we do bore holes at certain locations and it just happens that this location is between the bore holes,” explained Clement Yong, director of project delivery with the City of Edmonton’s Drainage Services.
“We did not predict that this would be there.”
The $74.5 million project which was meant to be complete by this June has been pushed back to spring 2016.
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“This is a significant project. This is not just one little segment on 23 Avenue. This is connecting the Satoo neighbourhood with the sewer trunk along 91 Street, from there connecting all the way to Calgary Trail,” said area City Councillor Amarjeet Sohi.
“It’s quite a lengthy tunnelling that is going on underground.”
Mill Woods has been hit hard by flooding and sewer backups over the past several years. Homeowners in the area were left cleaning up the mess from major floods in 1991, 2004 and 2012.
READ MORE: Mill Woods residents question city’s drainage system
Some residents in the area aren’t pleased with news of the delay, because it’ll mean more traffic delays in the busy area of south Edmonton.
“I’m definitely not happy about it,” said Jimmy Chong. “Look at the traffic congestion when they are working, and it’s been more than a year or so.”
While it may be a bit of a pain for commuters, it’s important work Sohi believes residents in the area understand.
“We do understand the frustration related to traffic, but this work needs to be done and this work is being done so the communities don’t have to face the flooding that they have faced in the past.”
Yong says the project is still expected to come in on budget.
There are currently 24 flood-prone neighbourhoods in Edmonton. The city says it would need about $2.4 billion to fix the storm drainage system.
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
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