Wednesday, September 13, 2023 Vol. 46, No. 37
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Viking prepares for future ‘catastrophic events’ Digs larger ditches and installs bigger culverts to handle flooding
PATRICIA HARCOURT PHOTOS
Work is underway to expand undersized ditches, and install larger culverts on the east end of Viking in order to handle greater volumes of water that could be expected in the town’s future. Patricia Harcourt Editor
Work has been ongoing on the installation of culverts behind the Viking Carena Complex and to the east towards the Viking Golf Course. The work is the result of a storm water study and assessment completed by the town’s MPE engineering firm a couple of years ago, said the town’s Chief Administrative Officer Doug Lefsrud. “It is my understanding the Town of Viking used provincial grant money towards this study,” said Lefsrud. The study was taken, he said, “as a result of flooding in neighbourhoods next to the Viking Alliance Church that
occurred previously.” Lefsrud explained that once the flooding revealed an issue that needed to be addressed, a plan was implemented to protect property owners and address liabilities around the town’s insurance coverage. The study revealed a majority of water run off was coming from rural areas within the jurisdiction of Beaver County. “The study determined that 97 per cent of water run off came from the surrounding areas and the remaining three per cent actually came from within the town boundaries,” he said. “This is important to realize that even if we don’t see a lot of rain in town, we need to consider the land
around us and the total potential water run off,” said Lefsrud. And the town being built on low lying land in the midst of county farmland has exacerbated the issue. “For folks who are not aware, Viking is situated in a low spot and water run off comes from surrounding county farm land,” he said. “And this has to make its way towards Viking. It then flows through our ditches and then on to Lake Thomas (in the county).” Work began last year and there is more currently underway in the town limits as a result of the study and recommendations that were made out of that. Lefsrud said the work is being done
“in preparation for such a catastrophic event as a 100-year storm.” In order to prepare for this, the current work includes expanding undersized ditches so they can better handle much larger volumes of drainage water. “The Town of Viking has spent almost a million dollars on these upsized culvert installations and the deep ending and widening of these ditches to handle those expected volumes,” said Lefsrud. Money used to complete this project in 2023 has come from the province’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funds for infrastructure, Claystone dividend funds and ratepayers from the Town of Viking, he added.