Widening of Barnwell-area road moving forward

By Cole Parkinson on March 25, 2021.

After the Municipal District of Taber assessed Range Road 17-4 needed a redesign due to large amounts of traffic, they are proceeding with the project. The road, which heads north of Barnwell, has exceeded the current design of the road – as the large-scale farming traffic on the road is causing shoulder damage.
The project will see the road widen to a minimum of eight metres, which administration says will create a safer road for traffic. Council was presented with four tenders ranging from $744,551.78 to $1,021,020 at their regular meeting March 9.
Quotes came from McNally Contractors ($774,551.78), Tollestrup Construction ($870,005), Brooks Asphalt and Aggregate ($974,825) and Silver Ridge Construction ($1,021,020), while the engineers’estimate was $941,500.
“This is one of the capital projects we have planned for the 2021 season,” explained Stu Weber, director of Public Works. “We opened the tenders last week and the low bid was $774,551 from McNally. We’ve done work with McNally in the past and they’ve been good to work with. Looks like it should be a good project and we’re excited to start moving forward with it.”
In the contract, the competition date is set for no later than Oct. 31. As far as work, administration explained in detail what would be happening when the contractor began.
“We will be digging into the base that’s there and we’ll be widening the shoulders out. Because there is a gas line that runs straight up the middle of that road, it inhibits us to dig the old road out as far as we normally would. But the intention is to widen the shoulders out and to widen the road top, so we can get that eightmetre paved surface,” said Weber.
“Through the coulee there, the shoulders on that road are a little bit gentle in there – so we do have enough space there to widen that up to get our full eight metres.”
Weber also explained the gas line was a bit of a shock when looking into construction on the road.
“This is an interesting one because as a general rule, we don’t allow any of those types of utilities in our right-of-ways. So it was a bit of a surprise to me, but this is the first time I’ve come across it.”
A motion to award the tender to McNally was carried unanimously.

Comments are closed.