PLAMONDON - The road construction project in Plamondon over the last few days isn't the downtown project many have been waiting for — including Lac La Biche County officials.
As municipal bosses continue to discuss planned paving programs — including the 800 metres of Plamondon's Main Street, as well as a portion of the hamlet's 101 Avenue — construction crews came through the region for patchwork jobs and some road line painting.
When the crews began working on Plamondon's main street Wednesday, many in the community thought it was the paving overlay project the community has been waiting years for.
In recent months, the repaving project that had been included in the Alberta Transportation 2020 project list was removed from the list with no reason given. Lac La Biche County officials have been negotiating with provincial representatives for several weeks to find funding for the much-needed paving overlay. Four years ago, the Plamondon Main Street — which is also part of Highway 858 under provincial jurisdiction — began a water and sewer replacement project and new curb and gutter construction. The project has been ongoing, and has left the hamlet's main downtown road in bad shape.
Still waiting on re-paving for rough street
Wednesday's crews around the community were only addressing some deficiency repairs related to that water and sewer work, like levelling some of the low spots created by settlement. That work saw crews patching several areas of the Plamondon main street.
"The County will also be completing curb, gutter, and sidewalk replacement on Main Street Plamondon," says Lac La Biche County communications manager Jihad Moghrabi, adding that there is no timeline for the total paving project. "Although we continue to communicate with Alberta Transportation, we don’t have anything new to share on repaving Highway 858 (Main Street) in Plamondon at this time."
The repaving project for the 800 metre stretch of Plamondon's Main Street is around half a million dollars.
