Westlock, Alberta, is jumping into a busy construction season with $230,000 set aside for road and sidewalk fixes this year, even as town council greenlights a major downtown rebuild that will test local patience.
The 2026 budget covers asphalt overlays and concrete replacements across town. But a 2025 pavement report shows the work is just a drop in the bucket: Westlock faces a 50 per cent road rehab backlog and needs an estimated $20 million to bring local roads to ideal shape. Engineering analysis says the town should spend $500,000 a year just to stop conditions from getting worse.
The biggest project on the horizon is the 106 Street Rehabilitation Capital Project. On July 13, 2026, Town of Westlock council approved a one-year construction timeline and a design known as Layout 2, spanning from 100 Avenue to 99 Avenue. Director of Operations Robin Benoit told council that splitting the job over two years would add $200,000 to $300,000 in extra costs for insurance, bonding, mobilization, and inflation.
Work will include upgrading underground pipes and streetscaping improvements. Near the Memorial Hall, crews found a pocket of hydrocarbon contamination that will be dug up and replaced. To help shops affected by the disruption, CAO Simone Wiley suggested the town could offer promotional support. “We can try to incentivize the community to patronize those businesses while they’re under construction,” she said. Mayor Jon Kramer added that the infrastructure upgrades could lead to conversations during budget time about potential grants or facade improvements for interested building owners.
Looking ahead, Westlock plans a $2.5-million sanitary capacity upgrade in 2027 to reduce basement backups. That comes on top of a multi-million-dollar revamp of the local lagoon system already underway. For now, residents will see crews patching pavement and fixing sidewalks as the town tries to chip away at a growing infrastructure gap.
