September 8, 2021 – Since the beginning of July, local traffic and businesses in downtown Fairview has been disrupted with major construction on 102 Avenue between 111 and 100 Street.
Water and sanitary main line replacement and services have closed the roadway; which currently has no road or sidewalks.
The 102 ave construction was originally planned to be done in August, but it now has an expected completion for the middle of October.
Knelsen Sand and Gravel’s subcontractor for the underground work had an incident on August 18, which resulted with the power in over half over Fairview being knocked out for 3 to 4 hours and a Stop Work order was immediately issued, shutting down all activities on 102 Ave.
The next day Knelsen and the Town of Fairview held a meeting when the town expressed dissatisfaction with the subcontractor, regarding the safety record on site as well as the quality of work from the subcontractor.
Prior to the power outage incident, two other Stop Work orders were issued against the subcontractor for work along 102 Ave.
The subcontractor was removed from the project on August 20 and Knelsen has since replaced the underground subcontractor with NewGen Projects Ltd.
Fairview Town Council decided in their September 8, 2020 meeting to provide a business support program to those affected by the construction being done along 102 Ave downtown. Mayor Gord MacLeod noted on the program saying “We actually had some funding leftover from our Covid-19 grant we gave out to the businesses that were hurting, that had shutdown. So we’ve reallocated some of it towards helping the businesses who are affected big time because of the issues with the 102 Avenue construction.” MacLeod says the new subcontractor is making lots of progress in a short amount of time; compared to the previous.
Businesses along the construction site that are directly affected will be able to apply for the financial support to offset the hardships of the prolonged project. Click here for the application forms.
Approximately 30% of the contract work around the town has been completed with a projected completion in May 2022 for 111 St surface work.
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
