Arrow Lakes Ready Mix is looking to realign Hot Springs Road in order to expand its quarry in the area.
The company his filed a proposal with the Integrated Land Management Bureau to increase the size of its quarry to 6.2 hectares from 4.8 hectares, and shift the bulk of the gravel pit to the south.
The existing gravel pit is located on the north side of Hot Springs Road, just west of the Nakusp landfill. The proposal would see the pit shifted further south, and the road re-routed through the area occupied by the existing pit.
Carla Trenholm, who owns Arrow Lakes Ready Mix (ALRM) along with her husband Isaac, said the expansion is needed to meet increasing demand for gravel.
“It will be beneficial to us because it will match up with our other gravel pit that we have up the Hot Springs Road,” she said.
She added that they recently bought a gravel pit near Burton to supply customers south of Nakusp.
The proposal calls for 10,000 to 20,000 cubic-metres of material to be extracted from the pit each year depending on local projects and demand.
The most significant part of the application from the public perspective is the proposed re-route of Hot Springs Road through the existing gravel pit area.
The application states the re-route would make the road safer by removing two corners, straightening the road, and improving site distances.
ALRM would pay for the cost of moving the road.
ALRM also applied to use a one-kilometre stretch of an old forestry road to access the pit, instead of driving along the Hot Springs Road.
“The proposal is to change the primary access to ALRM’s existing gravel quarry from a paved public road (Hot springs Road), which has extensive public traffic, to a little used dead-end gravel forestry road (on which they would have non-exclusive use, sharing with the local forest company and other users),” the application states. “The business would be improved and streamlined due to all season access to the gravel quarry, and shortened distance and reduced transportation cost from the quarry to the ALRM plant site.”
A secondary access to the pit would be located off Hot Springs Road.
