After Monday’s downtown gridlock, the city’s roads division wanted to send such a stark message about construction delays that it was willing to fine the city-owned power company.

So that means a $10,000 penalty will be paid by Enmax to its sole shareholder, the City of Calgary, for the delayed piping work that kept a key downtown intersection closed throughout Monday morning, leading to hours of traffic congestion in each direction.

But it’s also intended to send the message the same maximum penalty will be in store for other companies that cause such acute headaches for commuters.

“It’s not so much about fining ourselves or anything like that,” roads spokesman Sean Somers explained. “It’s more getting the word out that we’ve been fairly tolerant in the past with delays, but .... we want to be sure people are adhering to those (permits) so we don’t see more instances like Monday.”

Enmax’s crews were supposed to have closed up the weekend’s construction hole at 1st Street and 6th Avenue S.E. by 5 a.m. Monday. Roads staff came at that point to reopen the road, but were faced with an open pit.

The $10,000 fine is the maximum for delayed removal of hoarding under the city’s Streets Use Bylaw, roads director Ryan Jestin told reporters Friday. But that penalty for Enmax doesn’t even cover the 200 hours of transit drivers’ overtime caused by the road closure, let alone other economic costs of the traffic mess, Jestin said.

The utility said immediately that it accepts the fine, and reiterated its apology for the problem.

The fine comes on top of the roughly $8,500 for road closure permits Enmax already paid to the city to work on a heating pipe to its nearby District Energy Centre.

But it’s a small amount for a company that delivered a $56 million dividend to city coffers this year, and declared $3.1 billion in 2011 revenue.

“I don’t think they’re meaning for this to be punitive, but just making it clear to both us and other contractors that do work on city rights-of-ways that there will be implications if they go over deadlines,” said Enmax spokesman Ian Todd.

Asked if he thinks the fine should be higher, Jestin replied: “I don’t think it’s about, ‘Do we increase the fines or not?’ The bottom line is, we just can’t have this happen.”

The city fielded 500 complaints about the gridlock Monday, which the roads director estimated was a tiny slice of Calgarians frustrated that morning.

jmarkusoff@calgaryherald.com