The start of soccer season might still be a few months away, but that has not stopped residents of Mitchell from questioning whether their soccer pitches will be up and running by the time the weather turns nice. That is because of excavation work that has been taking place alongside the soccer park in recent weeks.

According to the Rural Municipality of Hanover, a sewer line is being installed in the swale between the soccer pitch and the baseball diamonds, running to the new development on the east side of Centre Street North. 

Rob Driedger is Manager of Engineering and Utilities for Hanover. He says this is a 10-inch gravity sewer main that runs approximately 300 metres. 

"The contractor was doing the work here in winter when a lot of sewer work is actually completed," explains Driedger. "They were pushing a lot of the pipe, but there were some sections of open trench."

In the areas where there were sections of open trench, Driedger says the contractor temporarily placed excavated earth on top of the soccer pitch. However, as of Friday morning, he says those areas have all been cleaned up. 

According to Driedger, once the weather allows, the impacted area of the soccer pitch will be fully landscaped and restored to its pre-construction condition. 

"The rough grade is complete already," he says. "As soon as the weather is cooperative, we will be fully landscaping that area."

Driedger adds that everything should be back to normal for the start of this year's soccer season. 

Sewer line running between the soccer pitch and baseball diamonds (Shannon Dueck)