Tantramar Engineer Jon Eppell
Sackville’s flood control project moved another step toward final completion today as municipal councillors awarded a $2,155,575 contract for partial construction of a double-gated aboiteau to discharge storm water into the Tantramar River.
They also approved a $71,000 expenditure for engineering services related to the project.
The new aboiteau would eventually replace an existing one that drains water through the dyke near the sewage lagoons in Sackville’s industrial park.
Town Engineer Jon Eppell described the construction project as “useful, but not complete — as a phase one that will use available funding and will be a building block for phase two.”
The municipality was forced to divide aboiteau construction into two phases after the lowest construction bid came in higher than expected leaving a substantial shortfall in the $2.4 million budget that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) had allotted for the project.
While the town is managing the project, DTI is providing 100% of the funding for it.
Eppell explained that phase one will involve building a temporary, sheet-pile wall to keep the construction site dry.
It will also include laying about the a third of the pipe that is needed to drain water through the dyke as well as installing the aboiteau flapper gates that release water at low tide.
He noted that phase two would not proceed until DTI comes up with an additional $658,000 to complete the piping, dredge the channel to the river and add riprap rock to prevent channel erosion.
Until phase two is completed, he said, water would continue to drain through the existing aboiteau. It has only one flapper gate and is higher than it should be for optimal drainage.
Eppell said his discussions with provincial engineers suggested DTI would have more of an incentive to fund completion of the project if phase one were already completed.
“They would then very much want to see phase two finished,” he added, “whereas if we don’t proceed with phase one, there’s nothing to stop this from being kicked down the road several years and we wouldn’t know when the funding would come through.”
If the additional DTI money comes through by March 1st, the Fredericton-based construction company Caldwell & Ross has agreed to complete the aboiteau project under the terms of its original bid of just over $2.8 million.
To read earlier coverage, click here.
Photo taken from the dyke shows the old ditch on the left that drains directly into the existing aboiteau and the new ditch on the right that will drain into the new one
