City of Powell River’s sea walk repair project is anticipated to get underway this coming spring.
At the December 17 city committee of the whole meeting, director of infrastructure Tor Birtig outlined the project, which was necessitated because of storm damage in January 2022.
Birtig said preliminary design has been completed and there has been regulatory approval of the shoreline enhancement, as well as specific areas of concern having been mapped.
“Primarily, we are focusing on 400 lineal metres of the sea walk that was significantly impacted by the storm damage,” said Birtig. “The next step will be to put the final design and project management work through a public tender process, which we anticipate to occur in January 2025.
“At that point, the successful proponent will prepare the final design to rectify slope stability concerns, as well as environmental, fisheries and archeological considerations. Once that design is completed and approved, we’ll have to run it through the archaeological branch, as well as Tla’amin Nation, prior to commencing of the work.”
Birtig said the final design is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025. He said in addition to that, there may be some archaeological monitoring required, but that will be reliant on the extent of the design.
“At that point, we plan on putting the construction work through another public tender process, which we anticipate in March or April 2025, and once we have selected a successful contractor, we plan on having construction begin in April and having it completed by the end of June,” said Birtig.
With the anticipated construction window, daylight tides will be favourable, which should help keep construction costs down, he added.
Mayor Ron Woznow said there is a lot of keen interest from people who love hiking along the sea walk.
“The more we can communicate what you just laid out, the better it is,” said Woznow.
City councillor Cindy Elliott said she was curious if the work to date gives any concern about whether the project is possible with the current $800,000 budget, or whether Birtig had any concerns about it coming in over budget.
Birtig said the city wants to remain within budget and the focus is going to be dealing with the more problematic issues. He said if budget allows, the city can work further on the aesthetics of the project, as opposed to what is necessary geotechnically.
Elliott then said on the first round of construction, there was considerable involvement with Tla’amin because of the sea walk being a high-value archaeological site. She asked, during the design phases, whether there had been contact or input from Tla’amin that might help include the nation’s concerns in the design.
Birtig said an archaeological review had been conducted and the initial design would not impact any archaeological sites. He said, however, once the final design has been submitted, there may be some issues, and at that point, if construction is encroaching into any of the archaeological sites, the city would have to refer to archaeologists, as well as Tla’amin.
City councillor and committee chair George Doubt said there are a lot of people in the community waiting for the sea walk to be fixed.
The project has a total budget of $800,000, funded by Powell River Community Forest. According to a staff report, as of December 10, $37,085 had been spent, leaving $762,915 available in the budget.
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