By Taylor Chartrand

Substantial construction underway for 1 Street southwest

May 31, 2019 | 4:15 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The City of Medicine Hat is completing water and sewer replacements along 1 Street southwest, as well as repaving sections of the road.

The construction will run from Division Avenue south to Chinook Drive southwest.

Construction Superintendent Cody Hyam says the City is upgrading infrastructure that is roughly 100-years-old.

Due to safety concerns, Hyam says they will have to temporarily close off portions of 1 Street to through traffic.

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“The contractor will be closing one intersection and one block starting with Division Avenue and moving into the zero-zero block of First Street and they will remain in that area until it is drive-able,” said Hyam.”

The City interprets drive-able as a minimum base of asphalt installed. 

“At that point, they will be able to move into the 1st Avenue intersection in the 100-block of 1st Street and we will phase them throughout, in that manner, until we reach 2nd Avenue, at which point, we will be able to transition to Chinook Drive in a larger group because there’s no adjacent blocks.”

Which means there will be some detours in place.

“We have a traffic accommodation to minimize the amount of disruption to the traffic however, homeowners will have some increased disruption via access to their house.”

In addition, crews are installing above ground water services to limit the disruption to area residents.

“It’s the same water, same quality. We go through extensive lengths to make sure it’s safe and potable. The service to the front of the houses will be disrupted and through traffic will be disrupted.”

He added Hamm Construction will be passing out notifications to provide insight to the upcoming work, as well as contact information to coordinate your temporary water connection.

Hyam says the project should be complete some time in October.

“As always with any underground or outside work, we are subject to weather disruptions, as well as other unforeseeable’s. So, I’m cautiously optimistic we will meet our target deadline of October 2019 however, that is subject to change.” 

If residents have any questions or concerns, Hyam says feel free to contact him.

“If you go to the City website, the email address is available. Send me an email and I will be sure to add you to the distribution list. It’ll help keep you informed. We really appreciate the acceptance and understanding from the residents and as always, feel free to contact me if you have any concerns.”

The official release, along with Hyam’s contact information can be found here.