Petrolia is planning to upsize a Petrolia Line watermain from Bear Creek to Oil Heritage Road to be ready for development.

Feb. 20, council approved a $143,000 contract for engineers to complete drawings for the work estimated at $3 million.

Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley says the 300 mm watermain will open the southeastern part of the town for development.

“The line coming down Petrolia Line was never built large enough to allow for housing development to the southeast. So, now that we’ve got a number of developments ready to go – they are close to it or if they do can go ahead – our line can’t give them enough water. So we need to increase our main water line.”

Town staff say its not clear when the line might be built. They’ve applied for funding under a federal program designed to pay for water projects which spur development.

Loosley says it could be months or years before developers are ready to move, but “we need to have it ready to go once they start so we can give them the water they need.”