COLD LAKE – City of Cold Lake council passed a resolution to transfer $1.6 million from the 2025 Street Improvement Program to the Lakeshore Drive Infrastructure Improvements Phase 1B project at its July 8 regular meeting, ensuring the major waterfront overhaul stays on track for completion.
The project, which was awarded to Knelsen Sand and Gravel in spring of 2024 for $12.6 million, has seen rising costs due to unforeseen construction challenges, change orders, and additional design requirements. The total project cost now sits at $14 million, nearly $1.5 million over the original approved budget, according to the City of Cold Lake.
“This project is a little bit bigger. This is a major replacement of Lakeshore Drive,” said CAO Kevin Nagoya. “We are doing the final tweaking in terms of the budget numbers.”
Nagoya cited several factors behind the overages, stating, “We have the pouring of the wall . . . the concrete stripping that is going out there, and any other change orders that we had to incur of unforeseen during construction.”
He added, “When you're dealing with a project like that along a side wall . . . there could be pockets of things that you don't see in geotechnical testing and whatnot.”
The coping beam, a structural feature tied to the seawall, was one source of delay.
“There was a delay last fall because of the complexity that designed issues with the coping beam,” said Azam Khan, general manager of Infrastructure Services. “That has been resolved,” he said, adding that the remaining major work is landscaping.
Khan confirmed that street lighting for the first two blocks has already been installed and paving is expected within the next week.
Despite delays that have pushed the completion target from the end of July to mid or late September, Khan is confident the project will be finished before winter. When asked by Mayor Craig Copeland if everything would be done by freeze-up, Khan responded, “Yes, that’s the target. We have contractors on board saying they will be able to complete it this year before snow flies.”
Council passed a resolution to transfer $1.6 million from the 2025 Street Improvement Program to the Lakeshore Drive Infrastructure Improvements Phase 1B project.
