LATITUDE
FROM THE GROUND UP Starting as a sewer re- placement and ending as a revitalization of the down- town area, the Lacombe Main Street Program won the Envision Award—a first in the province. -photo courtesy Stantec
PICTURE THIS: LACOMBE REVITALIZATION PROJECT FIRST IN ALBERTA TO RECEIVE ENVISION AWARD A community in central Alberta has gained fame from across the border with the renewal of its downtown core. A collaborative project between the City of Lacombe and two APEGA permit holders, Stantec and Pidherney’s , the Lacombe Main Street Program is a story of a sustainable, well-planned infrastructure upgrade Taking a two-birds-one-stone approach, the project team tackled other infrastructure needs at the same time, limit- ing future disturbances. “We were able to participate in presentations and stakeholder engagements that provided the most detailed and accurate information possible on schedules and
methodology, well in advance of construction,” says Pidherney’s project manager Dan Willis, P.Eng. “In turn, the downtown community brought forth specific concerns and comments that allowed the project to reach a new level of service during completion.” If the revitalization was a test in teamwork, the teams involved proved their mettle. “In the engineering world, we often like to brag about nerdy things like technical specifications. But the really unique thing about this project that brought it home was the team and collaboration,” Ben Haeusler, P.Eng. , a Stantec project manager, told the Red Deer Advocate . Starting in 2015, the Lacombe Main Street Program was finished on schedule and under budget in 2018. In addition to the Envision Award, it received the 2018 Project of the Year Award from the American Public Works Association Alberta Chapter for its outstanding management, construction, and administration.
It started out as a project to replace the aging down- town sanitary sewer main. From there, it morphed into a successful, $6.75-million downtown revitalization, catch- ing the eye of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) in Washington, D.C., and earning its Envision Silver Award. The Lacombe project is the first in Alberta, and only the fifth in Canada, to receive an Envision Award, meaning that it demonstrated an assortment of social, economic, and environmental benefits. “The Lacombe Main Street Program is an excellent example of turning an urgent, negative situation—in this case, a degraded sanitary sewer system—into a sustain- able, vibrant, community- and business-oriented project,” said ISI President and CEO John Stanton. Unable to choose less-invasive repair options be- cause the sewer system’s condition was so poor, the City of Lacombe was faced with closing historic Main Street while crews tore through the asphalt and did their thing.
50 | PEG SPRING 2019
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