The City of Cranbrook reconstructed the road surface and storm water ditch on 27A and 29th Avenues South back in 2010 and there were some concerns with drainage recently.
“There was a question about the storm water ditch up at Pinecrest and whether it was reconstructed properly when we put the waterline in their back in 2010,” CAO Wayne Staudt said at the Oct. 20 council meeting. “Staff does believe that the ditch is in properly and was put back to the state it was before we had to dig it up.”
Staudt said some of the residents in that area, because they can access their home off either street, continue to build their own entrances.
“They have taken out culverts and not replaced culverts and so forth. So the ditch is being compromised to some extent by the access roads that they are building and not putting in proper culverts,” Staudt said.
He say the gravel-based road would have to be maintained as a gravel-based road until it reaches its turn on the priority list for road paving.
The project cost $600,000 and didn’t allow for any additional work other than the replacement of the failed waterlines located on the two avenues.
The city’s engineering staff noted that council’s resolution referenced the road construction which was brought back to a gravel surface. They used a 2 inch gravel and not 3/4 inch gravel .
“The intent at the time was that this material could be re-used when the road is reconstructed to an urban standard and paved,” city staff wrote in the report.
However Staudt noted that they had also run out of money by that point.
“They’re trying to build a good base so you don’t have to start from scratch,” he added. Whether to add more gravel to maintain the road for vehicles use will be looked at in the 2015 budget.
Both avenues are currently built to a rural standard and considered safe for vehicular travel. The avenues will eventually be brought up to the urban standard.
City staff wrote that they intended to reshape the roads when they were slated for paving and super elevate the west side of the road. The elevated west side any drainage from the road is captured in the ditch on the east side of the road. That addition was part of the cost presented to residents in the 2010 referendum on the matter. City staff said part of it also included was to reshape the ditch and update all the culverts to the city standard, with a minimum of 16 inches, on the east side of the road to improve storm water flow.
City staff noted that most of the culverts installed by the residents for the driveways are under sized, partially buried and inadequate for proper flow in the ditch.
Some residents have also installed driveways with no culverts under them and filled in the ditch.
“The ditches on the east side of 27A and 29th Avenues do function to move storm water as they exist in their current location,” wrote city staff .