A Multi-Year Mess: Town of Drayton Valley 50th Ave. Rebuild

As a Drayton Valley resident, I’ve watched the 50th Avenue rebuild project go from bad to worse and feel compelled to share my view with other concerned residents.

Cost and Scope Creep

The project scope and cost has steadily increased over three years:

Prelim 2022 Budget: $2.2 million

Approved 2023 Budget: $3.4 million

Accepted 2023 Bid Price: $5.5 million

Updated 2024 Budget: $6.1 million

While a mill and resurface would have been a fraction of the cost, the original rationale for a full rebuild was to construct belowground wastewater runoff infrastructure to minimize flooding risks. However, at the December 2022 budget meeting, Administration said it would be an extra $2.6-$3.6 million to include the belowground infrastructure and a new report said flooding risks were small, so Council excluded the underground scope, approving a $3.4 million budget.

Anti-Local RFP Process

In June 2023, the Town received three bids for the project from: Border Paving, E Construction, and Parkway Enterprises but threw out Parkway’s bid. McElhanney oversaw the bidding process and requested the bids come in two different envelopes and Parkway submitted in one envelope, a simple oversight. Parkway fixed their submission within minutes of closing/notification, but the Town threw it out because they had missed the deadline, even though the bids weren’t opened until later in the afternoon.

Parkway often submits the best price in local competitive bids. This is because they are efficient and local; being non-local adds considerable costs to a construction project. Project Owners always give themselves the option to accept non-conforming bids, including late bids. It’s shocking to me as a resident that the Town refused to even open Parkway’s bid because of a mere technicality. Administration and Council pay lip service to supporting local and then ignore a local contractor for a significant, multi-year project that likely would have saved the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly even completely offsetting the 2024 tax increase.

Poor Planning

In December 2023, after the first portion of the road was rebuilt, the budget was increased by a further $600k to $6.1 million because the Town had not originally budgeted any inspection or project supervision services to ensure it was properly constructed. One wonders how the Town or its advisors would neglect this critical and costly aspect of a large capital project. The summer 2024 update was that the project will extend to Summer 2025 with unquantified cost impacts.

Ripple Effects on Remaining Budget

As ratepayers, we must naturally question the wisdom of this project, equivalent to over half of the Town’s annual net tax revenues as well as its tripling in cost from preliminary planning. Certainly, portions of the road needed to be rebuilt, but we residents are acutely aware of many other road sections needing to be rebuilt in this town and it’s hard to see how there will be funds available to complete that work after what has been spent on 50th.

Not only is this a massive undertaking for the Town with questionable value to residents, but it has pushed out many needed capital projects while property taxes were simultaneously increased 5.5% in 2024. The constant refrain through the entire 2024 capital budget meeting was how much can we cut and defer? Yes, we residents want Council and Administration to weigh the value and timing of capital projects. But we want Council to demonstrate wisdom in this process, rather than simply neglecting necessary capital projects to maintain the Town’s infrastructure and ensure efficient operations because excessive funds have been allocated to a boondoggle like the 50th Ave. rebuild.