Vehicle and pedestrian traffic on Haul Road through the consolidated wastewater treatment plant construction site will be restricted as of Monday, August 23. Accessing and passing through the site will only be open to construction traffic, according to a City of Powell River media release.
The new measures were developed with general contractor Graham Construction in response to several near-miss incidents between public traffic and construction vehicles on the road.
“With a marked increase in public and construction traffic using the haul road recently, the need for restrictions to public traffic became evident,” the release stated. “The continuing off-site hauling of excavated materials, the upcoming start of concrete pours and the increasing frequency of deliveries to the construction site created the potential for a serious incident or accident between the public and construction traffic.”
The northern restriction will be on Haul Road south of the access road to Tla’amin Nation lands adjacent to the City Transfer barge facility. The southern restriction will be at the WFP log dump.
Appropriate signage will be installed, and a flagger will be posted at the northern gate for the first few days to inform the public of the closure, according to the release. The closure will be for an initial period of one month with weekly reviews of its effectiveness, and modifications to the plan will be made as required.
“While the city recognizes the desire to access First Beach for recreation, in the interests of the public and construction personnel safety, these increased traffic restrictions through the consolidated wastewater treatment plant site are necessary to reduce the chances of an accident or incident occurring on the haul road,” the release stated. “We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation.”
