By Jessie Weisner

Major work ahead on Medicine Hat’s First Street

Oct 1, 2018 | 5:36 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – First Street in Medicine Hat has been a hub for construction all summer, and now it’s expected to continue in the spring.

The roadway is getting a major rehabilitation, deemed necessary from aging infrastructure.

A $1.2 million project to replace the gas lines in the road this summer was the first step in the extensive construction project.

“It’s all older infrastructure, not just the gas that was replaced this summer but also the sewer and the water pipelines, the asphalt, some of the gutters and things like that,” says Chris Turner, City of Medicine Hat Gas Distribution Engineering Superintendent. “Everything needs to kind of have a face lift and get all freshened up.”

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The project is the first in a two year plan to rehabilitate multiple roadways in the city that have failing infrastructure.

“This is one of the first ones where we’ve made a concentrated effort to do it all at the same time,” says Turner. “It’s something that we’re really looking at going forward just to maximize the potential for doing these types of projects.”

In the meantime, Turner says work is being conducted on First Street Southwest for the next week to patch up the asphalt for the winter months.

“We just did an assessment on it and decided for safety features, especially with winter driving coming up, that maybe a little extra asphalt was required to decrease the cross-fall on the roadway.”

Work should be finished by Friday, weather depending.