Starting later in 2020 Railway Street in Crossfield will have a whole new look, both under it and on the part you walk and drive along.  

The Town of Crossfield has awarded the contract to replace deep servicing and upgrade nine blocks of the street to Professional Excavators and Construction Ltd. of Calgary.  Work will commence on the project immediately with the construction scheduled to begin in the spring of 2020.

Crossfield Communications and Research Officer Christina Waldner explains what the work will entail.  "Essentially we have some 60-year-old infrastructure that needs to be dug up and replaced.  We're going to be doing it in a phased process so that we're not impacting the businesses along Railway Street all at once.  It'll be phased over about a five or six month period."

While the contractors are digging up the road, the town felt it made good fiscal sense to do some beautification to the street,  "That involves some things like redoing some of the parking, adding some benches and places for people to gather, adding a few things that will allow us to close off the street for street festivals, that kind of thing, some street parties," Waldner says.  "We're adding a lot of landscaping, some trees, and other foliage.  We're also going to add some new lighting along the street as well."

Waldner says the ultimate goal is to make the street more user-friendly and walkable and turn it into a destination for the citizens of Crossfield and visitors.  

The total cost of both parts of the project will be in the neighbourhood of $9 million.  Waldner says if the underground and aboveground work were done separately, the cost would have been about double.  "It actually ends up being a lot more fiscally responsible for the town by doing that.  We're actually saving ourselves some money by doing it all at the same time."

This week, the town will hold two open houses on Wednesday and Thursday nights (November 13 and 14) to introduce the contractor and project team to the community and the businesses along Railway Street.  Wednesday night is for the businesses while Thursday is for residents.  The meetings will both take place each night from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and both will be at the Town Administration Office at 1005 Ross Street.

Waldner says research has shown that a more vibrant downtown impacts the entire community in a positive way.  "People become much more part of the downtown.  The businesses flourish as well.  It's a really great thing for them.  We're also hoping to attract some new businesses by having a new, shiny, beautiful downtown street that people might be inclined to come in and start up some new businesses.  The main thing though is to bring that vibrancy to the downtown core of Crossfield."

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