FILE PHOTO: Victoria Street
(STAFF / iNFOnews.ca)
July 19, 2018 - 3:23 PM
KAMLOOPS - Upgrades are coming to Kamloops's busy downtown Victoria Street West.
Council approved a recommendation at their regular council meeting Tuesday, July 17 to allow staff to use $5.5 million held in a reserve fund to complete a project that will improve the infrastructure and corridor along Victoria Street West.
The city's capital project supervisor Darren Crundwell announced the project back in April. The project has yet to start construction, but city officials have already begun planning and designing the Victoria Street West upgrades that will begin to take place in 2019.
The project has a budget of $13 million. Staff had originally applied for a grant worth approximately half of the total project's value but the grant application was not approved, staff told Kamloops city council on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately we don't get feedback as to why we are not approved," Public Works and Utilities director Jen Fretz says.
Coun. Denis Walsh asked Fretz if it was possible to apply for the grant again to avoid using internal funds to finish the project.
"If we were confident we would be approved we would apply again," Fretz says, adding that borrowing the money internally would be the safest option.
"The infrastructure is failing quite quickly," Fretz says. "We can't put it off for much longer."
The $5.5 million to be borrowed from the Water Equipment Reserve fund will be paid back over a three-year period from the Gaming and Community Works fund, according to a report presented to council.
The infrastructure updates and improvements will start from the B.C. Lottery Corporation building to Overlanders Bridge. The project will include improving the landscape, lighting, underground power as well as updating the utilities in the area. Crundwell stated back in April that Victoria Street had the oldest utilities in the area that dated back to the 1900s.
The project is also receiving some funding through B.C. Hydro and ICBC. The project is expected to be completed in two years.
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