With the calendar showing Sept. 1, the chances the city will be able to do any work on Second Avenue this year are getting slim.
City roads director David Shelsted said Wednesday the province still hasn't decided whether the project can proceed after several groups filed formal objections, asking for a much more intensive environmental review.
Budgeted last year at $6.6 million, costs for the project have increased by about $800,000, Tony Cecutti, the city's GM of Infrastructure, said in late March.
Groups can file objections after the city publishes what's known as a notice of completion, which is a detailed outline of the project and its costs.
After handling the notices of completion themselves in 2014 and 2015, the city hired a consultant to do the work this time around, at a cost of $50,000.
Details of the project have been posted to the city's website. It would widen Second Avenue to five lanes from Donna Drive to Scarlett Road, and three lanes from Scarlett Road to Kenwood Street.
City staff have said the five lanes are needed because of heavy traffic counts along that stretch of Second — 15,000 vehicles a day — as well as the added traffic demands of future residential construction planned in Minnow Lake.
The project will combine the entrance to the Civic Memorial Cemetery and the Minnow Lake Dog Park, and align the new entrance across from Scarlett, where a traffic light will be installed.
When a group or individual asks for the more stringent environmental review – known as a Part II order -- the project can't proceed until the province decides whether the request is warranted. In an email Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change said that process is still ongoing.
“The ministry continues to review the Part II order requests,” Gary Wheeler said in the email.
Shelsted said the city received additional questions about the project and has provided a response.
"We're hoping to hear back from them soon," he said. "As we've always said, we're waiting to get an answer and we'll evaluate at that time. But as the construction season slowly dwindles away for our northern community, the construction for this year is at risk."
When asked whether the project could still begin this year, Shelsted said it depends on the timing.
"Once we get the official answer, then we'll make that decision," he said.
