With the recent approval of the renewable energy strategy for Blatchford, the City of Edmonton can now start major construction at the site. It’s shaping up to be a busy year as crews will be preparing the site for the first stage of residential units as well as the construction of a section of the central park.
Here’s a quick look at the big items planned for 2017!
- Stage 1 residential onsite servicing. The first stage in Blatchford will include approximately 250 condominium and townhome units. Before our homebuilders can start constructing these energy-efficient homes, we first have to service the area. This includes installing underground utilities like sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and water lines. In Blatchford’s case, this also involves adding special infrastructure to accommodate the District Energy Sharing System, which will provide the heating, cooling and hot water to the homes.
- Roads and laneways. Once the underground utilities have been installed, roads and laneways (alleys) will start to be built. Blatchford has custom designed streets, including laneways with landscaping and lighting in the areas where garage suites will be permitted. Incorporating these elements will make the lane feel more like a street and will help create a different type of public space.
- District Energy Sharing System (DESS). The majority of 2017 will be spent finalizing the DESS technical documents for construction tendering later this year and setting up the municipal utility that will run the system. Drilling of the boreholes for the shallow geo-exchange and construction of the energy centre (building which will house the equipment) may begin in late 2017.
- Selecting our homebuilders. Blatchford will be no ordinary community and that means choosing homebuilders who match our vision and our philosophy about creating a different kind of neighbourhood. Our builders will be selected through a competitive process and we expect to be able to announce them later this year. Once our homebuilders have been selected, they will begin pre-sales in 2018 to allow people to secure their spot as one of very first residents!
