Construction workers prepare to pour concrete along Third Avenue South on Oct. 29 in downtown Lethbridge. Reconstruction of Third Ave south is expected to be completed by the Fall of 2021.
The City of Lethbridge is continuing to work on multiple construction projects around the city despite COVID-19.
Since the start of the year, city employees have been starting and completing construction projects. New on the list that city council has approved this year is the Lethbridge Airport renovation and the Lethbridge and District Exhibition Agri-Food Hub project.
Hailey Pinksen, city treasurer says they have numerous projects in the books. The city is currently in year four of a 10-year budget cycle.
“A lot of projects overlap over multiple years so we have definitely reviewed our projects and saw where we may have the possibility to advance some projects. In general, we continued with our plan on what was originally intended.”
The new Exhibition Park Agri-Food Hub Centre was approved by city council in August, with a cost of $42 million with motions to help finance the project. A 30-year non-tax supported $17.8 million loan, execution of a motion from 2017 to provide a $25 million grant and $3.8 million in debt owed to the city will be forgiven in exchange for 155.71 acres of land that Exhibition park currently owns.
According to Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, the expansion will accelerate the area’s economic recovery.
“Southern Alberta has a thriving agriculture industry and this expansion will offer us another way to show it off to the world.”
City council also approved the renovation of the Lethbridge Airport earlier this year which includes $7.52 million for Phase 1. Councillor Jeff Carlson amended the original motion of $13.8 million for the total renovation cost required in all five phases. By completing only Phase 1, crews will be able to start work on the airport’s main customer service and holding areas. As well as a new HVAC system and enhancements to the city’s water delivery system to the airport. Construction is anticipated to start at the beginning of 2021.
Another big project currently happening is the redevelopment of Third Ave. south costing the city $2.6 million. The reconstruction began in the spring of 2020.
“The [Third Ave. project] did experience some delays from the initial timing of when it was planned, also because of COVID. It is now back on track and intended to be completed in 2021,” said Pinksen.
The City of Lethbridge was faced with layoffs when the pandemic hit. No permanent staff were laid off within the infrastructure department, however temporary and seasonal employees were reduced this summer across many departments.
Since 2019, the City had approximately 50 capital projects that had been started. At the end of 2019 projects such as the ATB Centre Phase 2, Yates Renewal, Transit Park and Ride and the Materials Recovery Facility were all completed.
Pinksen says the City has received grant funding from other government levels which are awaiting approval.
“The province and the federal [government] have allocated some additional stimulus funding that were awaiting approval for projects we’ve proposed that we plan to do under those funds.”
There have been a few non-urgent projects that were deferred this year due to the reductions in temporary workers. The Parks department has been affected the most as many of the layoffs took place in this department.