The one-way section of Lake Road east of the Comox Lake Boat Launch will remain one-way this summer.
Village manager of operations Rob Crisfield says the hope is to move forward with slope stabilization work in 2015, which would allow the Village to reopen the road section to two-way traffic. The roughly estimated $600,000 project is listed as a line item for 2015 in the Village draft financial plan.
However, Crisfield says that timeline could change.
“The big question is whether we can get funds from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure,” he says, noting the Village is not prepared to fund the project on its own and has been attempting to set up a three-way partnership between itself, BC Hydro and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to pay for it.
“BC Hydro has committed to participate,” adds Crisfield. “I haven’t got that same level of commitment from the Ministry of Transportation.”
A 200-metre section of the westbound lane located about 300 metres east of the boat launch was closed in spring 2012 due to slope instability between the road and the lake below.
Crisfield estimates the slope had slowly been sliding down into the lake for 20 to 30 years. The road became the Village’s responsibility in 2002 after a boundary expansion. Before that it was MoTI’s, and because the issues with the slope started well before the road transferred to to Cumberland, the Village says some responsibility should fall on the ministry.
Because Comox Lake is used as a reservoir by BC Hydro and the lake levels fluctuate due to the hydro dam, some responsibility falls on BC Hydro, too, according to the Village.
BC Hydro “recognize(s) some responsibility with the sloughing,” says Crisfield. “But, the ministry … budgets are really tight for them and I think their big focus is kind of South Island right now — the Malahat, there’s some other projects potentially that they might be working on — and I couldn’t get a real commitment out of them.”
Crisfield says the Village could apply for grants if the ministry doesn’t commit to the project, but council has other priorities, too.
“We’ve got some infrastructure related to water and sewer that’s a lot higher on the list than the road,” he says.
For more information about Village infrastructure projects, visit www.cumberland.ca.
writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com
