A big step forward in protecting the Town of High River and flood mitigation plans.

After a Special Meeting of Council on Monday, April 16 it was announced that the Town has come to an agreement with the landowners regarding the land acquisition and construction for the Southwest Dike.

“The Town and the Monteith family are now moving forward together on this project,” says Craig Snodgrass, Mayor of High River. “We are very excited to work together to complete the southwest dike as it is an integral part of the Town’s overall flood mitigation strategy.

The future dike will be constructed just south of 12 Avenue S.W. and the alignment will be the ‘reverse S curve’ style that was proposed by the Town earlier in the design process.

Landowner John Monteith said his family is pleased that this important aspect of flood protection for High River can move forward.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the Town through its completion and beyond, said Monteith.

The ‘reverse S curve’ alignment is ideal as it will allow for the mitigation to be away from public view, which would not have been the case for the ‘hockey stick’ alignment that was offered as a second design option.

The Southwest Dike project is estimated to remain within budget and is funded through a project-specific grant from Alberta Environment and Parks.

Snodgrass said with this agreement in place, the expropriation proceedings will now be abandoned,  

“This agreement is a win for everyone and now we can move forward with one of the final protection elements for our community.”

 Updates on this project will be posted to the major project map at www.highriver.ca