ATHABASCA — Athabasca County councillors have many concerns about work at the Buhler gravel pit north of the river, including ensuring birds are monitored, the timing of the project, and the potential impact on nearby infrastructure.
At the Mar. 8 council meeting, director of infrastructure services Robert Dauphinee and public works manager Cory Poulin explained the need to open up the site named South Buhler to replenish the county’s supply of three-quarter inch and 1.5-inch gravel, which will require stripping of the land to get to the desired aggregate below.
The contract to crush 64,000 cubic yards of three-quarter inch gravel and 15,000 cubic yards of 1.5 inch gravel to be used for road maintenance and construction was awarded to Hopkins Construction (Lacombe) Ltd. for $1,321,965, which beat out two other bidders, but not before councillors expressed a few concerns.
“With this whole tender, who’s looking after the roadway, who’s looking after the hauling?” Coun. Rob Minns asked.
Poulin explained Hopkins Construction is aware a road lease agreement would need to be signed and that it would be responsible for any repairs.
“As well, we're also looking at potentially where we can complete the (topsoil and overburden) stripping now, we can get the crushing done, stockpile on site for the time being and then we do have a clause ... in the tender documents where we can extend the deadlines and the scope of work,” he said. “So, we could push that to say mid-June, and then we can complete the haul at that time.”
Coun. Ashtin Anderson also expressed concerns about the environmental impact of the project.
“I have concerns about construction operations and environmental responsibilities, and I am not comfortable approving this until after we've had the discussion for the stripping to make sure that all things are covered,” she said.
The only concerns brought forward by a consultant were for the birds as there did not appear to be any ungulates like deer or moose which could be calving in the area.
“Before we start any of the clearing whatsoever, we have to have a bird sweep completed. So, through our consultant, we checked a couple of environmental issues, a couple concerns that were brought up were an ungulate calving zone and nesting birds and migratory birds,” Poulin said. “Nothing came up with an ungulate calving zone whatsoever, so we have no concerns about that. The only concerns that were brought up was migratory and nesting birds.”
An inspection of any trees which need to be cleared has to be done during the day to check for nests, and at night, owl calls will be made to ensure no nocturnal birds are present.
“I’m just curious what happens if they do find an owl,” said Coun. Tracy Holland.
“So, if they do find any nest eggs, there’s a buffer zone that will be put around that area,” said Poulin. “Now, from my memory, I believe it’s five to 10 metres so, we just have to make a buffer zone around that area, we can’t touch anything.”
The gravel pit area which will be stripped covers about 10 acres.
“Who's taking on the responsibilities if Alberta Environment comes to inspect? Who's responsible for that? Is the county taking that on, or is this contractor? Is there a contract in place where the contractor is held responsible for that,” said Anderson.
“So, the contractor will be held responsible for the activities plan in place,” said Poulin. “The activities plan basically states all the environmental regulations or what we can and can't do for the job."
And while the project could be done in the summer the current supplies are getting low and if the stockpile north of the Athabasca River is used up it would require transporting the material from other pits.
“If we can get the stripping started first week of May ... it'll take probably four weeks, three to four weeks to get that completed,” said Poulin. “And depending on how you guys would like to go, if you want to go with active reclamation ... we can be starting to crush at that too. So, probably by the first week of June we will have aggregate stockpiled.”
Poulin noted if the council decided to reject the current tenders, new tenders would cost a lot more.
“I think it would be fair to approve the lowest bidder for the crushing contract at this time, as that number was given before the (Ukraine-Russia) war came up,” he said. “As well, if we reject these tenders and we have to post it again, Hopkins Construction stated that they won’t honour the trucking price that they gave us, that prices would go up.”
Administration was also directed to contract a bird sweep and not to start the project until ground and road conditions for travel and clearing the topsoil and overburden are better.
