While a low-cost temporary fix allowed public access to the region’s Katherine Lake park during this summer, the price of a more substantive repair is on the rise.
At the Sept. 12 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board meeting, elected officials gave the nod to a revised project budget of $275,000, up from the $200,000 they agreed to last March. Discussion of the change was a late addition to the meeting's agenda.
All areas to share the added costs
The extra money is to come out of the region’s Canada Community Building Fund- Community Works Fund. Each electoral area will contribute $15,000 from fund amounts that were originally allocated for spending in their jurisdictions. Support for the new funding plan to repair the access route to one of the lower Coast’s most popular freshwater beaches and inland camping sites was unanimous, with several directors noting the park is a “regional attraction."
The driveway into the region’s facilities at the lake was closed in February, after runoff water undermined the base of the driving surface and a culvert. While the region projected the access point to the beach and campground would remain closed into July, with the help of a local contractor, repairs were made that allowed public and their vehicles a safe way into the park as of June 7.
The damaged road section spans a fish-bearing stream, therefore there are environmental requirements and timing restrictions for design and in-stream construction work, according to a staff report on the meeting’s agenda.
“Many aspects of the project are well underway, materials have been received and are on site, fish salvage work has been conducted to prepare the work site for required dewatering and stream diversion, and equipment and crews have been mobilized to complete the construction. The in-stream project works need to be completed imminently to adhere to the Water Sustainability Act and Fisheries Act,” the report notes.
Project planning showed SCRD mapping error
A surprising revelation from project planning, according to Area E director Donna McMahon, was an error in SCRD mapping that resulted in a portion of the access road spilling over onto Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure right-of-way. She asked if mapping errors were “a frequent occurrence” noting that “a lot of us rely on those maps."
In response, community services manager Shelley Gagnon explained that not all details relating to properties in the Katherine Lake area were accurately recorded when the regional mapping system was introduced. Many of those properties were developed in the 1960s, she noted, and the mapping was done several years later.
