The City of Calgary said they informed the owners of a northwest Calgary café as soon as they knew that site would be needed for replacement of the Bearspaw South feeder main.

Last week, the owner of Angel’s Café in Montgomery said they felt the termination of their lease at Edworthy Park came abruptly, and now they were forced to find a new location at a substantial cost while the new Bearspaw line is being installed.

On Tuesday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas and Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson both questioned the impact to Angel’s and the community in general.

Mayor Farkas wanted to know why that site was needed, and more about the 30-day termination clause and being proactive in keeping business owners in the loop about the community effect.

“How is city administration going to be as proactive as possible when it comes to consultation with potentially affected business owners as well as local residents?” Farkas asked.

Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson said that they’d initially designed the southern portion of the Bearspaw replacement but cancelled that procurement for that project that was expected to close on Jan. 29.

They directly awarded the sole-source contract nearly two weeks ago, he said.

“The contractor started to mobilize to three sites. One of them was the Edworthy park site. At that location, we are going to have a very large construction project underway. There will be two very large vertical shafts built, large cranes, large heavy equipment,” he said.

“It is going to be a large, noisy, loud, dusty construction site. I want to ensure you know there is going to be a lot of impact. As soon as we understood that, the team went to Angel’s Café within 24 hours to let them know we needed to terminate that lease that we had with them.

Thompson said they included the 30-day lease termination in the event there was an incident like this.

Impact due to city neglect: Business owner

Cathy Jacobs told LWC on Jan. 23 that a potential clean-up of the site and a move of their million-dollar building cost could $500,000.

They had just extended their lease with the City of Calgary for another five years.

“I have 30 days to remove everything off the land. So, they said I got two weeks to remove everything out of the building, and then I expect they’ll probably just shut the water and power off on us, and then the building has to be removed,” she said.

What keeps Jacobs up at night is that this Bearspaw situation was created through years of poor infrastructure management and oversight on the part of the City of Calgary.

“We got people that travel across the world, that come here to see their family, that make this a regular location,” she said.

“And suddenly, out of negligence on the part of the city, we’re suddenly being put that everything we’ve ever worked for, for 28 years, is now at risk.”

GM Thompson said they always want to work with businesses heavily impacted by construction work in Calgary.

“But in this case, there would not be access for them, there would not be safety for them or their clients, and we need that location to get this work done as quickly as possible,” he said.

“So, that’s why we let them know as soon as we knew the required termination.”

Tunneling versus cut and cover

The City of Calgary has contracted Ward and Burke Microtunneling to burrow into the ground and replace the pipe with less intrusion on the area.

At the three work sites outlined by the City of Calgary, there will be two vertical shafts at these locations, with between and eight and 10-metre diameter.

“Those sites are where we would be launching a micro tunnel boring machine,” Thompson said.

Residents will see heavy equipment, cranes, excavators and trucks coming in with pipe.

“The pipe will be disappearing, and that’s because it will be going underground and launching between those shafts,” Thompson said.

Thompson said that had they proceeded with a cut and cover (cut open the earth, dig a trench place the pipe and cover it) there were a number of issues. First, it would have been very close to the other pipe, and that could have put the existing pipe at risk.  Had there been a construction-related break, it would have put water service at risk.

“We would close 16th Avenue completely down, impacting all businesses down 16th Avenue and impacting mobility down 16th Avenue, and we will have to have the entire road under construction at the same time as we work to accelerate,” Thompson said.

Thompson said they are in the planning and design process of the Stage B portion of the Bearspaw replacement. That will be finalized in the next two weeks and then shared with Calgary city council, he said.

Coun. Atkinson said he appreciated the effort of the city to find a less intrusive option for the Bearspaw replacement, and asked about other mitigation in the area.

Thompson said it was important for Calgarians to recognize the scale of the work being done.

“We always try and reduce the amount of noise that goes into the community, reduce the amount of dust that goes into the community, reduce the amount of construction activity that the community experiences. But, I want to be super clear, it will be disruptive,” he said.

“This is large construction. When people go and see these pipes, they are often you’re expecting a pipe like in your household. These are pipes my height and diameter. They’re large pieces of pipe, large equipment that is doing this work.”