Trails not deemed a safety risk will have to wait a bit longer to be fixed.
(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
October 06, 2014 - 12:12 PM
KAMLOOPS - It’s hard to forget the July 23 storm that hit Kamloops hard and fast, leaving a wake of flooded roads, vehicles and trails. Two and a half months later the city is looking to complete nearly $1 million in emergency repairs and is planning on how to address the remaining damage over the coming years.
Initial estimates from city staff pegged the damage to city infrastructure from the brief storm at $3 million. Staff are now asking for $950,000 from reserves to undertake emergency repairs of drainage and gully damage.
The city is specifically looking at the Peterson Creek channel at 604 Nicola St. where a sinkhole formed next to the house, Springhill Creek at Sahali Mews on Summit Drive and at the Peterson Creek Bridge, the Hillside North rip-rap channel and miscellaneous trail repairs. Based on site assessments, it is recommended these repairs all take place this year because of safety concerns and possibility of further damage.
The rest of the damaged sites will be repaired based on a multi-year plan set to begin in 2015. Staff hopes to combine those repairs with other upgrades that need to take place
Once council approves the funds, which would be come out of the General Fund Reserve specifically set up for extreme events and emergencies, staff will look at tendering the projects. Some projects were started almost immediately after the July storm because of safety concerns and are now nearly complete.
The province declared the event eligible for financial assistance, which would cover up to 80 per cent of costs to restore infrastructure back to ‘pre-event condition’ and will not include costs to improve it, such as additional reinforcement. Eroded land and unstable slopes, which make up the majority of damage in the city, are also not covered by the funding program.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014