The wheels are turning on a $3-million flood mitigation project in LaSalle's Heritage Estates and Oliver Farms.
The town has received $1.5-million from the National Disaster Mitigation Program and will match the funds to cover the entire cost of the work.
The two neighbourhoods have about 800 homes and since 2014 roughly 10% have been flooded at least once including major flooding in 2015 and 2016.
LaSalle's Director of Public Works Peter Marra says the work includes replacement and rerouting of storm sewers and the construction of a dry pond storage area in Heritage Park.
"It's going to provide mitigation and flood relief for these extreme events that we are experiencing," says Marra. "They seem to not be letting up and continuing. So certainly this will provide some of that relief for those types of events."
Proposed flooding solution for Heritage Estates and Oliver Farms in LaSalle (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
He says construction won't have a major impact on traffic.
"Most of the impact is actually going to be in the park. Some of the park will be closed for the duration of the construction. That's more of the open space area. It doesn't effect the playground area or the parking lot or the pavilion area out there, but at the end of the day, most of the park area will be fenced off."
Phase 1 of the project is underway which includes detailed designs for the project.
If all goes as planned, construction will begin next summer and is expected to wrap up by the of the year.