LAC LA BICHE — Lac La Biche County’s new drainage services department has an uphill battle when it comes to maintaining and repairing aging culverts, ditches and damage caused by beaver activity.
The new department that combines all drainage work within the municipality under one umbrella, consists of four specialized employees: a utilities manager, a drainage coordinator and two seasonal trappers.
With approximately 3,400 culverts across the county — most of which the conditions are unknown — the scope of the department is as vast as the region itself.
“There doesn’t seem to be very good records of the age and replacement dates of what’s in the ground,” said Jon Skjersven, the department’s utilities manger.
According to Skjersven, much of the culvert and ditch maintenance has been reactionary and prioritized based on the severity of infrastructure failure. Moving forward the goal of the department will be to create an inventory of existing culverts and ditches, followed by a multi-year plan for replacement and maintenance of the drainage system.
This year alone, the drainage services department has replaced nine culverts that have experienced catastrophic failure, dealt with several sinkholes caused by water washing along the outside of the infrastructure and have completed repairs on multiple culverts to enhance waterflow.
"We are still dealing with effects of the precipitation we had in 2020,” explained Skjersven, adding “Our contracted equipment services budget has been mostly used up and we have a few bigger projects that need to be completed along with the effects of beavers — even though that has slowed down.”
To continue the necessary and ongoing projects, and daily operations, Lac La Biche council approved the transfer of $250,000 to the drainage services department operating budget.
Coun. Sterling Johnson, who strongly supported the budget increase, said he would support the doubling or even tripling of a future budget for the department to address aging and insufficient drainage infrastructure throughout the entire county.
“This is a County problem, and it's been ignored for a long time and you do need help to catch up with a lot of these culverts. Otherwise, we're going to have a lot of more road failures, just like we did down from the bingo hall,” said Johnson. “I think it's something that the county has to catch up on.”
Big item projects
Large scale projects expected to begin in 2021 with the additional budget funding include:
Square Creek culvert replacement - This is a sensitive area that feeds into the Owl River and is waiting on Water Act Approval from Alberta Environment and Parks. The estimated cost for this project is $60,000.
McGrane Estates culvert and riprap - This is needed to minimize erosion to the lakeshore and private property, along with some ditching work. The estimated cost is $15,000.
Terrabain Crescent drainage improvements - Spring and summer rain events have shown the drainage system in the subdivision has a hard time moving runoff through the properties and ditches, requiring a survey and culvert/ditch cleaning. The estimated cost is $50,000.
