Engineer puts brakes on sewer plan (COLDSTREAM)

By JENNIFER DYCKMorning Star StaffJul 12 2006 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Even though the work has already began, plans for the Kalamalka Road sewer trunk installation have taken a last-minute turn. The plan was to extend the line up Aberdeen Road to Wisbey Drive, but that plan has been scrapped. “The extension up to Wisbey started triggering some thinking (of the big picture),” said Ken Oliver, Urban Systems senior engineer. “We said let’s just put the brakes on this.” The concern is digging up the road now with future plans or projects that could force them to re-dig up the road and alter the work done. But Coun. Mary Malerby sees this last-minute adjustment as poor planning. “In some of the pre-planning and what’s happening now I think this could have been done better and with a lot more forethought.”
The sewer extension to Coldstream Meadows has also been reviewed, by Urban Systems.
Although there is interest in using the extension to service all residents on Birch Lane, Oliver said it is not recommended for all. The future main on Birch will accommodate basement sewer service for most of the properties, but there are three or four that cannot. Those properties could be serviced if the downstream mains are deepened, at a cost of approximately $140,000.
“Is that good economics knowing that in the future there is an ability to connect them?” questioned Oliver. When Birch is eventually extended to the north, with future residential development, there will be an opportunity to install deeper sewers. Council also took the recommendation that a lateral extension south of Pine Drive at Giles Drive be deferred until it can be incorporated into future construction of sewer along Giles Drive to the Bel Air subdivision. The lateral extension would only benefit one property, at a cost of $44,000.
Work on the Coldstream Meadows extension will begin once a sewer stub is in place for the developer to connect to. The sewer is routed down Mackie Drive to Coldstream Creek Road, along Coldstream Creek Road to Pine Drive, down Pine to Giles Drive, along Giles to Kalamalka Road and then to Aberdeen Road.