MD OF BIGHORN – A long-awaited new operations building for the MD of Bighorn is on time and on budget and should be complete by this time next year.
In a verbal update to MD council Tuesday (Sept. 10), Doug Fulford, Bighorn’s pre-construction and site investigations project coordinator, reported the foundation of the main building is complete, and work is proceeding to install underground utilities.
The next step, he said, will be construction of the parks department storage building foundation.
“It’s been a busy summer, so far, as you can see if you’ve driven by [the site],” said Fulford.
“The project’s on schedule and we expect it to be ready for occupancy in about a year from now, in September 2025.”
Located on MD land east of Exshaw, between Bow Valley Trail and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway tracks, the new facility will be 9,800-square feet in size and replace a Quonset that’s been used by MD operations staff since 1988.
The MD has experienced significant growth since then, including space constraints for staff within its current administration building, and was finally able to proceed with planning construction of the new building after completing a land swap with the province last year that was 20 years in the making.
Thus far, there have been no challenges with supply chain – an issue Bighorn administration was concerned about relating to infrastructure and HVAC materials required for construction, said Fulford.
“So far, everything appears to be available and on schedule. It doesn’t appear, at this time, that we’ll need a budget increase, which is also good news. Fingers crossed everything keeps going as well as it is now.”
The MD has long been planning to build a new operations shop as well as a fire hall and administration building on parcels of land it received in the swap. Three parcels totaling 26.7 hectares designated for industrial and commercial use east of Exshaw were exchanged for 8.9 hectares of vital wildlife habitat split between a section north of the G8 Legacy wildlife underpass on the Trans-Canada Highway near Dead Man’s Flats and land north of the hamlet adjacent to the Bow River.
The municipality’s 2020-25 corporate plan had the operations building being replaced in 2022 for $6.2 million, but increases in supply chain costs have since bumped the MD’s approved capital project budget to nearly double at $11.75 million.
The total cost estimate of the project is pegged at $12.3 million, which includes a five per contingency.
To fund the bulk of the project, the MD approved a borrowing bylaw in May 2024 requesting $8 million through a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) loan, with an interest rate up to a maximum of 5.5 per cent per annum repayable over the 30 years, as well as a 25-year loan of $2.3 million from the Royal Bank of Canada, not to exceed an interest rate of 7.5 per cent per annum.
The rest of the project will be funded by a competitive grant from the FCM.
The MD hired Fillmore Construction Management Inc. as its general contractor for the project.
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