Work underway on $4.5M pond east of cemetery

A massive $4.5-million drainage pond under construction near the Brandon Municipal Cemetery won’t be completed until fall 2026.

Crews started construction on the Brandon Municipal Cemetery Naturalized Stormwater Pond located east of the cemetery and north of Magnolia Drive in late October.

The pond is being built to combat flooding issues on Sycamore Drive and 18th Street, which often occur after heavy rain, Kyle Winters, the city’s director of engineering, told the Sun on Friday.

“We have some issues with overland flooding in those two areas there, and … those sewers will drain to the cemetery pond and then alleviate any flooding issues there in the future,” Winters said.

Work is set to end Oct. 30, 2026, Winters said.

He said the finished pond — which will be roughly the shape of a lower-case H — will include planted vegetation and look similar in style to the Crocus Plains drainage pond.

There will also eventually be a walking path to the west of the pond, according to contractor drawings. The path, along with other future landscaping work, isn’t part of the current work.

Crews are excavating 101,000 cubic metres of soil at the site, Winters said. The pond will be two and a half metres deep at normal water level.

The pond comes at a cost of $4,545,891.81, according to bidding results on the city’s purchasing and tenders page.

A second phase of the project will include a new land drainage sewer on Magnolia Drive, which will drain northward into the pond.

Along with improved drainage, Winters said a benefit of the project is that the land that is being excavated will be repurposed as topsoil for an expansion of the cemetery.

“It’ll essentially be prepped and ready for topsoil and sod and that sort of thing. Any future pathways, roadways can be installed right on top of the rough grading,” Winters said.

The current open land at the northeastern corner of the cemetery isn’t level, Winters said. Repurposing the soil on the same land means it will be cheaper for the city, as it won’t have to bring in dirt from a further source.

The cemetery pond project is part of the larger southeast drainage project. That includes the finished Crocus Plains drainage pond, sewer work next to 17th Street East and another pond at 17th Street East and Richmond Avenue East.

The last part of the project as currently planned — Phase 3 — will include another pond near First Street and Aberdeen Avenue and a land drainage sewer on First Street from Aberdeen to Queens Avenue.

The last of those tenders will likely go out in 2027, Winters said.

Winters added that there is a Phase 4 that is “kind of planned” and would see the pond near 17th Street East and Richmond Avenue East drain into the Assiniboine River, though that project is a “long ways out.”

The cemetery pond work is being done by Alternative Landscaping Ltd., which had the lowest of seven bids.

Construction on the project will continue throughout the winter, Winters said.

So far, everything is moving on schedule, he added.

» alambert@brandonsun.com