The City of Merritt is budgeting nearly $1 million to renovate the centre medians along Nicola Avenue through Merritt this year.
On Tuesday (April 26), council gave first three readings to its 2016-2020 financial plan bylaw, which contains $980,000 budgeted to spruce up the six islands that separate the road’s east and westbound lanes.
The project involves replacing the old asphalt medians with concrete and adding trees and other shrubbery to them.
City of Merritt chief administrative officer Shawn Boven compared this project to the medians that line DeWolf Way in Merritt’s Gasoline Alley section of town located just off Highway 5.
“It would basically take that look, and put it down the centre of Nicola [Avenue] where it’s all asphalt right now,” Boven said.
“It’ll make for some greenspace, it’s better for the environment from a storm water management perspective — it gives the rainwater some area where it doesn’t have to just runoff. It can fall in the landscaped areas and get absorbed back into the earth,” he said.
The medians will contain bunchgrasses and possibly columnar or aspen trees, and a sprinkler system to water the vegetation, he said.
“The lighting will remain the same,” Boven said.
Design plans the city has for revitalizing Nicola Avenue’s medians. Submitted/ City of Merritt
This project stands to be one of the priciest the city has undertaken since the infamous Central Park Improvement Project, which initially had a budget of $728,000, but ended up costing approximately $1.1 million after substantial cost overruns.
The project falls under the public works department, and Boven said staff will be instructed to exercise due diligence and to manage the project vigorously.
Boven said detailed design plans are currently being developed, and if the tendered bids come in high, the city will look at making some cuts to the project, or ask council what is essential to be kept in.
The project is being conducted in conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s repaving of Nicola Avenue this summer.
The province will tear out the old asphalt of the medians as part of their paving project, which will save the city some money, Boven told the Herald.
He said the ministry’s repaving project is expected to take place starting in July and finish by the end of the summer. The city’s work to the medians will likely be completed by the spring of 2017.
