The repairs to a portion of Saint-Francis Boulevard will cost significantly more than the City of Châteauguay had estimated. And global warming has something to do with it.
City council had initially passed a $5.84M loan by-law to complete the work between des Tulipes and Salaberry North. Council added $3M at a special council meeting on April 12, making the total $8.8M. How can the difference be explained? Cost estimates to prepare the loan by-law were done in October of 2020. Further analyses pertaining to the structural conditions and about sanitary sewer lines were conducted in February of 2021.
“An update of the sanitary sewage line conditions confirms that it must be replaced, something that was not anticipated in the preparations for the loan by-law,“ explained Stéphanie Gosselin, Communications Director for the City of Châteauguay.
Climate change also causes more frequent heavy downpours. At the beginning of the year the Ministry of Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change modified the law so that municipalities are required to take that into consideration when it is time to install or replace sewers. « For 1-100 year recurring rainfall, the proportion of damage caused by climate change has gone from 10% to 18%. This increase is quite significant and had not been taken into account during the cost estimations in 2020, » the spokesperson emphasized.
Following its analysis of the Saint-Francis Boulevard project, « the ministry requested that the retention volume for rainfall be increased, which consequently increased construction costs, » Stéphanie Gosselin specified. The City is eligible for financial assistance from the federal Gas Tax Fund and Quebec’s Contribution (TECQ) for replacing the sewer line.
Translation Amanda Bennett
