The City of Estevan is taking part in a program it hopes will develop new ways to handle age-old problems.
Estevan is one of 15 Saskatchewan municipalities involved in the Communities of Tomorrow program, a private-public partnership that could place Saskatchewan as a leader in the field of municipal infrastructure innovation by developing Canada's first infrastructure innovation hub.
Communities of Tomorrow recently released a list of the first round of projects through the new Leveraged Municipal Innovation Fund that is co-funded by the province's major municipalities and CT.
"Through an unprecedented level of co-operation among Saskatchewan municipalities, we have determined the research and development priorities that matter most to our municipalities. These projects will set our municipalities on a course of saving taxpayers' money and building innovative opportunities," said CT president John Lee.
Over the past few years, Saskatchewan's municipalities identified five major priorities which are the focus of the first round of projects:
Developing improved roadway pavement materials and maintenance practices for pothole repairs.
Creating new guidelines for recycling asphalt pavement in new mixes.
Creating new guidelines for winter sanding and salt, and investigating best materials for road sanding.
Exploring unconventional uses for wastewater treatment plant sludge.
Developing specifications and guidelines for management of melt water and contaminants from snow dump sites.
City manager Jim Puffalt said Estevan has been involved with CT for three years and said it has been a worthwhile venture.
"It is a great program. It is trying to take advantage of Saskatchewan expertise and take good ideas that communities or the private sector are doing and trying to commercialize them," said Puffalt.
"We had a focus session in the beginning of 2009 and just expressed some of our problems that we have here and is there a better solution."
One area of focus for the City has been finding a better way to replace utility services. Currently if the City or a homeowner has to replace something such as the waterline from their home to the street, they are forced to dig up their front yard and create a significant mess.
"(They are looking into) more of a boring or a sleeve-type approach," said Puffalt. "We have sent people to try and help design a project where if somebody had a lead line that they had to replace in their front yard to their house, you don't have to actually dig it up.
"It's such a huge impact upon property owners and their landscaping. We have had to take up trees because of that. If there is some way that we could just get in there and not have to wreck somebody's yard that would just make it so much easier for everybody."
Puffalt said the last news he received about the project was that a prototype had been created.
The City also has a prototype project coming up on Duncan Road where poor soil conditions have caused significant damage to the street.
"The soil conditions are so poor there to build upon, so they want to use a crumb-rubber type material to see if there is a little more elasticity and lets the ground shift up and down."
