CALGARY – 9 years after a catastrophic flood triggered billions of {dollars} in injury to components of Calgary and surrounding communities, work is to begin on a dam to defend the realm from rising water sooner or later.
Premier Jason Kenney says the province has awarded a $744-million contract for the Springbank off-stream reservoir to Vinci Construction.
Greater than two-thirds of the associated fee – $576 million – will probably be picked up by Alberta taxpayers, and the rest will come from the federal authorities’s catastrophe mitigation fund.
The project was delayed as a result of a quantity of landowners west of Calgary had been sad in regards to the dam’s have an effect on on their properties.
Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney says voluntary agreements have been accomplished with all of the landowners, so there is no such thing as a want to expropriate any properties.
The dam will divert water from the Elbow River away from populated areas, together with Calgary.
5 individuals died and injury ran to $5 billion throughout southern Alberta throughout in depth flooding in 2013.
Function picture: FILE – A girl stands within the yard of her residence within the flooded neighborhood of Bowness as up to 100,000 individuals have been evacuated from their properties, in Calgary, in a June 21, 2013, file photograph. Extreme climate occasions resembling fires and floods have gotten extra frequent and tougher to predict, and it’s forcing architects and engineers to rethink how they design buildings, infrastructure and cities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette, File
