Residents in Valley Heights got a first-hand look and a chance to speak to project managers right in their neighbourhood about the coming electrical replacement and a new reservoir.
Residents met in Golden Way cul-de-sac on Tuesday evening (March 25) to meet directly with members of both project teams to view preliminary drawings, discuss plans and timelines and ask questions about both projects. The city also took email addresses from residents interested in getting regular updates sent directly to their inboxes.
It made sense to have an open house-style meeting with Valley Heights residents on both projects, explained Ben Stevens, manager of Flood Mitigation and Strategic Initiatives in Grand Forks.
“Both of these projects are happening parallel to each other, the Valley Heights Electrical Project and the East Zone Reservoir, which is essentially in the neighbourhood,” he said. "The turnout has been great.”
Along with a general open house and public outreach, city administration wanted to talk to specific homeowners that will be impacted by the construction and get their input, about the replacement and moving of transformers near private property.
A few of the new transformers will be on city-owned property but will be next to private land. Project managers and the city wanted to be sure there weren’t going to be any issues with homeowners, as well as get input that may change the design.
Regarding the new reservoir, Stevens said it’s been fully funded by the province and the city. The design was finalized several weeks ago, with an above-ground structure of 4,000 cubic metres. Project planners and managers are aware it’s going to be a large structure in a place where there wasn’t one before, plus it will be in a popular hiking area.
“It will be like-for-like in terms of size,” he said. “We are in the design phase and in the next couple of months, it will go out for procurement to get pricing on that tank from the market. We are getting feedback and ideas – and we’ve heard some great ones – taking those back to our plans and adjusting as we continue the planning phase.”
This will fully replace the underground reservoir, by decommissioning and removing it.
Peter Novokshonoff, project manager for the Valley Heights electrical replacement said plans are preliminary, but the overall system will be located in mostly the same areas the current one is in, with a few transformers being relocated. Beyond that, the focus of the new system is making it easier to repair and maintain in the future.
There will be a significant amount of digging at the site, but it will be confined to the streets with minimal disturbance of private driveways and boulevards.
A start date hasn’t been finalized, but construction will happen this year.
The electrical utility replacement was identified by the city administration and city council as an urgent project in 2024. However, a power outage on New Year’s Day that affected 20 homes in the east-end neighbourhood made it a bigger priority. City council already voted for a new underground system earlier this year to replace the current underground system. The design of the new system is underway, with the city purchasing new materials and supplies. The next step is to complete the design, receive the materials that have been ordered and hire contractors for civil and electrical work.
This project has been in the works for months, but the open house was a pleasant surprise for many in the neighbourhood. Claudia Morais said she came home to find the open house already in progress, but said she didn’t see any advance notice. However, she was pleased to see the open house and both projects underway and project managers, city councillors and Mayor Everett Baker come to the neighbourhood personally.
She was also unaware of the plan to replace the entire underground electrical system, but still praised the city’s plans and actions in light of the New Year’s Day outage.
“This will be good for all of us,” she said. “It’s likely going to be costly, but it will still be good for us because of the outages we had in January. You can’t have that so it will be a benefit for us.”
For others, the replacement and re-design will make their homes safer in other ways. Resident Isaac Weltz said the plans include removing a transformer from the front of his home’s property, which will mean more room to park vehicles.
However, his biggest hope with this project is it will mean an end to bad grounding from the aging electrical infrastructure.
“I can’t say if it’s from that transformer, but I’ve come to turn on the outside hose and I’ve gotten shocks,” he said. “A few other people have said they’ve had similar problems. I’ve been told that’s a grounding issue and it’s being fixed with this new system.”
On the East End Water Reservoir replacement, council has already voted on an above-ground glass-fused steel tank that will replace the current underground system. Most of the city’s water needs come from this reservoir, which the city’s wells draw water from.
The next steps are to complete the design and hire a contractor to supply and design the tank. Again, no specific timeline was given, but the city is looking towards starting by early fall and completing by winter. The location has already been staked for development.
Anyone wanting to be added to the email update list is asked to email projects@grandforks.ca and state if they want news on the electrical infrastructure, the reservoir, or both. City administration is asking for all email addresses and phone numbers people want to use to stay in contact.
All questions and feedback on the projects can be sent to the Capital Projects email at any time, however, if it’s urgent, please call City Hall at 250-442-8266 and ask to speak to the capital projects team.
