$1.8 million Squamish River dike upgrades to begin at Fisherman’s Park and North Yards

The District of Squamish is set to begin a $1.8 million upgrade to the Squamish River dike system, providing important flood protection improvements to two key areas of the dike at Fisherman’s Park in Brackendale and by Whittaker Slough and the West Coast Railway Museum in North Yards. This is the second phase of dike upgrade work; the first phase began in December 2012.

In North Yards, the Squamish river dike will be raised and widened over a length of 800 metres by capping the existing dike and building out the landside toe over 600 metres, and the riverside toe over 200 metres. Erosion protection will also be added on 1,300 metres of previously raised sections. In Brackendale, erosion protection will be added on 1,000 metres of this previously raised section of the dike.

Work will begin in March and is expected to continue through June, depending upon final contractor schedules. Sections of the dikes will be closed to access during the work to ensure public safety. Vegetation clearing will be required in order to complete the dike work, affecting approximately 200 (mostly) deciduous trees that are required to be cut down in the Whittaker Slough area. Tree removal work will begin this month and is being done in conjunction with a Qualified Environmental Professional and conforms to all federal and provincial environmental guidelines.

The community is being asked for its cooperation around contractor schedules to ensure their own safety and maintain the integrity of dike work while upgrades are in progress.

As announced in May 2014, funding for the upgrades comes from a joint investment by the Government of Canada, the Province of British Columbia and the District of Squamish, with each providing one-third of the funding, or approximately $600,000 each.

“Flood protection work has been extensive over recent years in large part due to the funding we have received from our partners in the federal and provincial governments,” says Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “This is a very welcome investment into our community, and we are appreciative of the support.”

The District of Squamish will provide project updates online on the dike project page.

March 16, 2015

Post your comment

Comments

No one has commented on this page yet.

RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments

We use cookies to help improve our website for you.