A damaged section of roadway on South Pender Island that has languished since the heavy rain and flooding in November of 2021 is finally set to be fixed after the new year, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI).
In fact, according to MoTI officials, the repair work on Canal Road — including clearing, rock blasting and offloading the existing slide and roadway, realigning the road onto solid bedrock and placing a new larger culvert and reinforced retaining wall — is expected to improve the critical connection road’s resilience in “future extreme rain events.”
Crews are expected to begin in February 2024, according to MoTI, and a tender for the repair project has been posted. A temporary barge landing facility will be constructed at Boundary Passage Drive to transport equipment and materials.
After the 2021 floods, MoTI said it installed a number of safety measures in and around the roadway, including slope deformation monitors that track earth movement and load restrictions. The single-lane-alternating traffic, with timed signals at each end of the site, will remain in effect during the project — and could disrupt drivers further, according to officials, as there may be a need to close the road “intermittently” for as much as four hours at a time.
“All efforts will be made to minimize traffic disruptions during peak travel times,” according to a ministry press release. “Advance notice of traffic disruptions will be provided via DriveBC.”
Crews will continue to monitor deformations and perform any necessary maintenance while the repairs are ongoing, according to MoTI.
The damaged section of road is roughly 2.5 kilometres east of Pender Canal Bridge, the link between North Pender Island and South Pender Island. MoTI officials said additional federal environmental permitting was secured due to the project’s proximity to the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, and that revegetation and mitigation measures will be in place following construction.