West Edmonton will be without a city run recreational facility for a lot longer than planned.
City staff have confirmed the Jasper Place Fitness and Leisure Centre will stay closed at least three months longer into 2019 than first thought.
“The degree of asbestos was more significant than we anticipated,” Adam Laughlin, deputy city manager for infrastructure, confirmed on Tuesday. “So it really changed our approach in terms of how we were going to remediate and rehab.”
The original thought was the reopening could happen sometime before March a year from now. Laughlin said that will be pushed back to sometime before Canada Day next year. “It has increased the cost but I believe we’ve actually already gotten the budget adjustment to capture that. But unfortunately, it means a schedule impact.”
Laughlin said they’re having to get the rehabilitation work on the pool area and the connection to Bill Hunter Arena before they can do any modernization work.
Councillor Andrew Knack said he’s gotten only a handful of calls, but expects more now that there’s likely a three-month delay.
“I get that 84 per cent of our significant projects are on or ahead of schedule,” he said.
On Tuesday, council was reviewing a report on capital projects and how they are affecting the overall budget.
“Thankfully, there’s a partnership with the YMCA that people can use their passes. So I get that overall it might not be a huge impact, but still, for those of us in and around the west end, not having that location fully operational is always frustrating. We want to see that open sooner rather than later.”
The capital report mentioned some holdups on other key projects that are delayed. That includes the Park & Ride on Ellerslie Road. It’s being held up while the city continues to piece together a land swap with the province for a future hospital that will be built near a planned LRT station. Discussions about access ramps at 135 Street and Anthony Henday Drive have also pushed the project back beyond March 31, 2019, the report said.
Laughlin said federal funding to help pay for it has also been extended.
The report also lists a smart-card system for Edmonton Transit, an anaerobic digestion facility for waste management and an expansion of the EPark system as being behind schedule.
The Metro Line LRT signalling system is also included in that file.
Mayor Don Iveson said council will receive an update in April.
“Until all of the information is in hand, there isn’t much more to say,” Iveson added, after telling reporters council gets periodic updates on the problem-plagued LRT.