In 2014, MPE was hired by the Town of Hanna to make a detailed report about its roads, water systems, sewage systems, and stormwater systems. The report looked at how these systems were doing and made a plan for fixing and improving them over the next 10 years.
In 2023, MPE did another study. This time, they didn’t check everything again, but instead, they looked at what progress had been made since 2014 and made a new plan for the next 10 years.
Sarah Fratpietro and Mark Steffler from MPE talked to the Town Council about this new plan on November 29, 2023. After that meeting, some errors in the report were corrected, and then brought to Council for approval at their Feb. 13, 2024 meeting.
Here are the highlights from the plan:
- The Town of Hanna faces similar challenges to many other small towns in Alberta. A lot of its infrastructure was built around the same time, and now it’s getting old. Fixing things in smaller towns costs 10-15% more than in bigger cities.
- The plan made in 2014 suggested spending $11,660,000 over 10 years to improve things. The Town of Hanna spent about $706,000 every year for this, which is about $265 per person.
- Table 6.1 in the report shows what needs to be done over the next 10 years to upgrade the infrastructure. This table will help the Town keep track of what needs to be done and how much it might cost. It will also help them decide which projects are most important.
- The plan for replacing pipelines for water, sewage, and stormwater is based on how risky different areas are. Roads are given the highest priority, then water systems, and finally sewage and stormwater systems. Figure 6.1 in the appendix shows these recommended projects.
The costs in the plan include extra money for unexpected things and for engineers, but they don’t include taxes. All the costs are based on the prices in 2023. For construction after 2023, the report suggests thinking about prices going up by 3% every year. The costs in the report are just rough estimates for planning purposes. If the projects go ahead, more detailed planning and costing will be needed.
The updated plan can be viewed at https://hanna.ca/reports-studies.