The Inside Scoop: Mayor Dan Daley Interviews Director of Infrastructure Adrian Pedro

Mayor Dan Daley: Adrian, we hear a lot about the projects that are taking place here in Olds and we're progressing forward, which is a great thing to hear for the Town of Olds. Can you give us an example of some of the projects that we're doing short term and maybe some of the things that we're planning to do long term as well in the areas of infrastructure?

Adrian Pedro, Director of Infrastructure: Absolutely. We do have ongoing this year is our 57th Avenue project. So that project was identified because of the sanitary sewer that was collapsing in that section of roadway. And so what we found there through our investigation is that there was quite a bit of water that was getting into that line because the the sewer pipe was literally collapsing. And so there was a lot of infiltration points.
And so through our assessments, this was one of the ones that was a greater need to get replaced. And it kind of highlights the strategy that we're taking going forward through our water loss and I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) investigations is that we're prioritizing those roads that are seeing the worst of those two items.
And so in the future, we have at this point about a five to seven-year plan on which areas that we do need to replace. So we'll we'll be bringing those forward to council on an annual basis to seek funding for those.

Mayor Dan Daley: And what is the train of thought that you're using? We hear a lot about the replanning of the 57th Avenue and 27 Highway intersection. What are your thoughts on on us doing that work at this time than waiting for later?

Adrian Pedro: Okay, well, fair question. That's one we often consider when we're doing work adjacent to the highway.
That 57th Avenue Project we do have to consider the Highway 27 Functional Plan, not that we can implement the full design at this point because it does involve a lot of right away acquisition or land acquisition.
We do our best when we plan these projects to try and meet the interim desire of that Hwy. 27 Functional Plan. Ultimately the province does own the highway and so we need to do our best to manage access and manage conflict points along the highway.
With 57th Avenue, for example, we are implementing the closure of that service road, which ties into the ultimate goal of that Functional Plan for that intersection.
So it is a safety improvement that's required there.

Mayor Dan Daley: Makes a lot of sense for safety and for economic value to do it now rather than down the road.

Adrian Pedro: Absolutely, yeah.