I met a man in a wheelchair on the new RDN trail in Qualicum Bay. He said the driveway chip was pretty easy to travel through.
This interaction got me wondering what the possibly thousands of blind people who may tap their way along this trail, using the side board specifically installed for them, will do when it stops at the two private property crossings that have no blind leading devices for 50 meters each? I guess they cannot enjoy the full length of the trail. But I sure do.
Hearing the accolades and watching the back slapping of the RDN for the beginning of this rural trail system in the north end, I just wish the chief engineer on the job had some actual aesthetic sense.
The trail goes through a now pristine virgin second growth fir/mixed/coastal forest and right smack dab in the middle of it is are two bright aluminum bridges. What were they thinking?
Fully 95 per cent of the trail has wooden bridges and walkways and, where they should have continued to use wood, some idiot decided to spend hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars installing a city type structure in the middle of a rural area.
Do they have a clue about what attracts tourists to our lovely area?
The contractor did not finish his job. I noticed where a few prime spruce trees were felled, where are they now? Several first growth fir were brought down and not utilized. Why? Lots of fiber was brought down and is laying on the ground making the place look like an ugly quick cut.
If construction clean up was part of the contract, then the contractor should return and clean up the mess.
However, the RDN needs to put a real rural hat on, not one made out of aluminum, and think of community by setting a date and time for self sustaining local folk to cut and haul all the construction debris that was left … the logs, the slabs, the punching, the wood on the ground and make good use of it.
Len Walker
Deep Bay
