Oct 04, 2019

4th Avenue Culvert Replacement Construction Update

The important groundwork, construction of the foundation and headwalls and installation of the new culvert for 4th Avenue at the Rocky Creek dip have now been completed as we make steady progress and work towards reopening the road.

The Town started work on the necessary infrastructure project on June 15 to complete the project within the provincial fisheries window, which was extended this year to October 11.

Replacement of the culvert at the Rocky Creek dip is critical to ensuring our core infrastructure can withstand the impacts of climate change – especially high water volumes during major storm events.

The new steel arch culvert is assembled and already installed on site. It is designed and built to modern engineering standards that anticipate major storm events.

The culvert is also more than double the size of the previous structure and has greater capacity to support increased water flows and fallen debris that can impact the normal course of the stream channel.

In recent weeks the Town’s contractor also successfully removed the old culvert, rerouted the Fortis gas pipeline, diverted Rocky Creek to accommodate the new design as well as poured concrete foundation and headwalls to support the new culvert – both major project milestones.

These significant improvements to the supportive structures will help to mitigate erosion which, in part, led to the failure of the previous culvert.

During the construction, the Churchill-McKinley traffic detour has remained open and the Town has used dust control measures to limit the impact on the surrounding community.

We appreciate the cooperation of residents who continue to obey the posted 30 km/h speed limit along the detour route, 20 km/h on the dirt connector road, and drive safely through surrounding neighbourhoods.

The Town also recently built a walkway for pedestrians along the McKinley-Churchill access route for increased safety.

The upcoming weeks will be a busy time as the contractor works to complete key tasks within the extended fisheries window. 

Ongoing and future work includes backfill and stream restoration, reinstating utilities, as well as rebuilding the road and sidewalk.

For more updates on the Town of Ladysmith visit our website www.ladysmith.ca. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.