Strathmore, Alberta is moving to fix the aging wastewater pipes at the heart of its sewer system, launching the first phase of what is expected to be a multi-year overhaul of infrastructure that was never built to serve a town this size.

Located about 50 kilometres east of Calgary along the Trans-Canada Highway, Strathmore has grown steadily for decades as families priced out of Calgary look east for cheaper housing. The town now has roughly 14,000 to 15,000 residents, and its underground infrastructure hasn't kept pace. The central trunk sewer, the main artery that carries wastewater from neighbourhood collection lines to the treatment plant, runs through the oldest part of town and is showing its age.

Trunk sewers are among the most expensive and disruptive pieces of municipal infrastructure to replace. They sit deeper than any other pipes in the system, run in large diameters, and can't be taken offline without affecting the entire network above them. When they deteriorate, groundwater seeps in, capacity shrinks, and the risk of failures grows. When they reach their limits, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas can restrict new development approvals until a municipality can prove its system can handle the load, a significant problem for a growth-oriented town.

Strathmore's decision to move now, rather than defer the work further, fits a pattern playing out across Alberta's smaller cities and towns. Federal programs like the Canada Community-Building Fund and provincial transfers through the Local Government Fiscal Framework have created cost-sharing windows that make large underground projects more financially feasible. A town Strathmore's size can't fund a trunk sewer replacement from property taxes alone.

The town posted the project for contractor bids in early April 2026. The listing does not include a project budget, a detailed breakdown of which sections of pipe are being replaced, or confirmed funding sources, so the full scope of Phase 1 remains unclear. What the phased designation does signal is that this is the beginning of a longer program, not a one-time fix.

For residents, the near-term impact will likely be construction disruption in older parts of town. The longer-term question is whether the pace of these upgrades can match the pace of growth, and whether Strathmore's infrastructure can stay ahead of the demand being pushed outward from Calgary.