Nearly three years after a series of atmospheric rivers brought rains that washed out roads and triggered a state of local emergency on the Sunshine Coast, B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) is finalizing repairs to storm-damaged roads
Over the summer and fall, MOTI is polishing off three projects in Roberts Creek and Halfmoon Bay, replacing culverts and repairing road embankment erosion as heavy rains during the November 2021 storm caused debris blockages and washed out culverts.
“These repairs include increasing culverts to accommodate future storm events and climate change, as well as armouring the shoulders and strengthening the embankment,” said a statement from MOTI.
Earlier this summer, a contract for just under $5.5 million was awarded to Heavy Civil Infrastructure Ltd. for the final road repairs in Roberts Creek. Work started in late July and is to be done by late November. There are two projects in the Creek: where Flume Creek intersects with Margaret Road and Beach Avenue and on Day Road (some residents’ road access was entirely cut off in 2021), at Clack and Gough Creeks. In both cases, emergency and interim repairs were conducted last year.
In Halfmoon Bay, MDBS Quattro Constructors Ltd. was awarded a contract for just under $1.4 million to do repairs and replacements where Kenyon Creek intersects with Redrooffs Road, just east of Sargeant Bay Provincial Park (at Cove Beach Road). Where there was work in October 2022 and last year, this round of construction started in mid-August and is expected to end in late November.
Federal funds repay MOTI for these disaster repairs.
Asked why repairs took so long, MOTI said that permanent repairs involved several phases as they were the result of a natural disaster, and emergency and temporary repairs were conducted in 2022 and 2023. Between 2022 and 2024, MOTI conducted final design, permitting, regulatory approvals, property acquisitions and tenders. The ministry also pointed to the “coastal weather cycle” restricting construction to “spring, summer and late fall months” and the environmental permitting timelines restricting when work can be done in a creek.
Redrooffs closure
Redrooffs Road in Halfmoon Bay currently has single lane alternating traffic. Starting in early September, the road will be closed for a maximum of 15 days, the ministry said in a statement Friday. Once the culvert is installed, the road will return to single lane alternating traffic until the project is complete.
Updates will be posted to the DriveBC website, said the statement.
