Lacombe, Alberta receives Envision Silver Award for sustainable main street project

The Lacombe Main Street Program, a rehabilitation project for the 13,000-person Alberta city located 125km south of Edmonton, included sanitary sewer improvements and the improvement of a variety of community assets in the city’s downtown core. Based on a range of environmental, social, and economic benefits the project has delivered to the local community the Program has received the Envision Silver Award for sustainable infrastructure, designated by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI).

The Lacombe Main Street Program is the first project in the Province to earn an Envision Award. The City of Lacombe worked in collaboration with Stantec and Pidherney’s Inc. to deliver the award-winning sustainable infrastructure project which has also been recognized with the American Public Works Association (APWA) Alberta Chapter Project of the Year Award.

“The Lacombe Main Street Program is an excellent example of turning an urgent, negative situation—in this case a degraded sanitary sewer system—into a sustainable, vibrant, community- and business-oriented project,” said ISI President and CEO, John Stanton in a media release.

In 2015, the City discovered that the sanitary sewer along was in urgent need of repair. Less invasive repair alternatives were not available due to the condition of the system, therefore, Main Street through Lacombe’s Historic Downtown would need to be closed during construction to complete an open cut sewer main replacement.

To limit future disruption to the downtown business area, the City took a proactive approach by having the project team review future infrastructure needs for a growing population and business sector, focused on delivering infrastructure projects based on the fundamentals of sustainability, asset management, and resiliency.

Key factors contributing to the Main Street Program earning Envision Silver include improved community quality of life; improved site accessibility, safety, and wayfinding; improved infrastructure integration, enhancing public space; and providing for stakeholder involvement.

“We are very excited to celebrate the Envision Silver certification of the Lacombe Main Street project,” says Todd Simenson, vice president, Alberta North & Territories, Stantec.

What makes the Lacombe Main Street Program unique is not just the emphasis placed on meaningful stakeholder engagement or building relationships within the community, but the focus on collaboration at every level, process, and stage of the project. The Collaborative Design Process developed by the Main Street Program’s project team far exceeded the requirements outlined under this Envision credit. For those reasons the project was recognized with the Innovation credit in this category.