While there were many things happening in town, a humble but vital project has been moving forward.
The vertical expansion of the landfill finished up its third and final phase this past November. No additional work is required.
Earlier this year in April, council unanimously decided to award a $1.64 million tender to Whistler Excavations to work on this final phase of the expansion. The contract was for six months.
The expansion has been a pricey endeavour.
A staff report says that design, tendering, construction inspection and contract administration costs regularly reached the hundreds of thousands for the three phases of the project.
The actual construction budget, according to the April report, said the first phase was $685,000, the second was $3.1 million and third was $1.6 million.
Council passed a motion in November that would allow the municipality to borrow $2.02 million in improvements to the expansion.
While the project was already done at that point, the District’s financing strategy for Phase 3 was to pay for the work using money from municipal reserves. The loan will be replenishing those reserves now that the work is finished.
Locals were able to cast votes against this loan, among others, from late September until Oct. 29, but no one did.
During the third phase, crews built up the remainder of the retaining wall to about 10 metres in height.
A staff report says that based on current population growth, this will give the town landfill capacity until approximately 2027.
The first phase was finished in July 2017, and involved clearing the site and establishing surface water infrastructure and construction of a toe berm to support road access.
For the second, finished in April this year, crews extended the piping network, and, among other things, built a retaining wall about seven metres high and 500 metres in length.
Council first voted to vertically expand the landfill in 2015.
At the time, District staff said studies have showed at the rate of use, the Squamish landfill would’ve been full by 2018.
