Last week:
Caelin Porter Mental Health Awareness Walk: It was a beautiful evening in support of an important cause. BAM for Youth and St. Albert's CSD department, in partnership with many local organizations, are working hard to ensure that community members know they can access help.
Chamber of Commerce lunch: It's always great seeing our business community leaders at the Chamber lunches. This week's speaker, "Dr. Kevin Nagel, <spoke> about breaking down organizational boundaries and helping companies thrive, <and> creating an environment where businesses and organizations work together, our city and community can grow and prosper."
Agenda highlights:
If you ever wanted to read 300+ pages of Utility RMR (Repair, Maintain, Replace) Capital Project Charters and Municipal RMR Capital Project Charters, it's your lucky week! The GPF meeting will be all about the 10 Year Capital & Utility Plans, and reading the charters is quite interesting; It's wild how much work goes into keeping municipal infrastructure standing. A handful of highlights:
Akinsdale Arena
From what I understand, Akinsdale Arena will be unavailable during some of the major repairs, but the city will work with user groups to minimize impact. Plans include:
- Roofing Repairs, including bitumous membrane, and roof panels
- Repair and replacement of mechanical components, including furnaces, exhaust fans and de-humidifiers.
- Facility electrical repairs and replacement, including lighting, electrical panels
- Concrete slab replacement and dasher board installation on the Akinsdale surface, including the supporting infrastructure to make ice, including brine system installation.
Roads & Trails
Fun facts:
We maintain approximately 240 lane kms of arterial and highway road, 130 lane kms of collector roads, 320 lane kms of local roads, and 85 kms of multi-use trail.
The replacement value of the local road network is approximately $378,500,000, the collector roadway network is approximately $215,000,000 million, and the arterial roadway network is approximately $258,000,000.
Condition level assessments of the arterial road network are performed annually, once every three years for collector roads and local roads.
"Results of the testing provid<e> a figure called Pavement Quality Index (PQI). PQI is a value that represents the overall condition of an asphalt surface and is an output of multiple measurements taken, such as:
Structural adequacy (how strong the roads are)
Ride condition (how bumpy the roads are)
Surface Distress (the surface texture of the road)"
Transportation System Management
The complex planning that goes into our roads and overall transportation network is impressive. As we continue to grow and improve our transportation network, Administration ensures that we make the best possible decisions for both safety of users and ease of use:
"This is an evidence-based program that prioritizes locations from data such as road operations (vehicle and pedestrian volumes), collision data, infrastructure conditions; and incorporates public reports of concern.
To ensure a full scope of asset management processes (data collection, data / network analysis, report preparation and strategic planning); resource allocation (staffing, equipment, contracted services) must be appropriately designated.
Public opinion on network priorities or operations does not always align with actual data, network level considerations, condition level assessments or requirements to meet standards.
Consideration and collaboration between this charter and planned capital work (intersection improvements, Safe Journeys to School, Intelligent Transportation Systems) ensures stronger strategic planning."
Stormwater Management Level of Service (LOS)
"This program includes capital upgrades to improve level of service in the City’s storm system... Many of the older neighborhoods in St. Albert have drainage issues and require new stormwater infrastructure improvements to prevent damage to private property.
... This program will begin to address these... locations on a priority basis addressing additional capacity requirements. Projects such as Deer Ridge Surge Pond, Lacombe Park, Mission, Sturgeon and Grandin Subdivision Minor/Major System Upgrades are identified under this program.
There is also a complaint driven or localized storm/drainage issues component to this program where administration prioritizes locations which have been identified by either public complaint or operations."
This is a brief high-level overview of highlights from our meeting agenda, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. As always, I also encourage everyone who is able to tune in the the live-stream of the meeting (3pm here) or attend in-person (3rd floor of St. Albert Place, hang a right getting out of the elevator). You can also register to speak if you have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.