By Tom Mark

Cosens Bay Road Improvements

Oct 16, 2017 | 6:55 AM

Work is about to get underway on ditch and drainage improvements on Cosens Bay Road in Kal Park.

Highways District Manager Jack Bennetto says it’s a matter of keeping the road stable and safe.

“We’re not making a big expansion at all. It’s more ditches for proper drainage so the integrity of the road can stay as good as possible.”

Bennetto says the work includes grading and graveling of the road.

The entire project will take three years to complete.

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“It’s right from park gate to park gate and we’re spending a little over 100 thousand dollars on graveling and ditching. Making sure there’s culverts in the appropriate places if they are not there already.”

Bennetto says they hoped to start in the summer, but the wildfires caused a delay.

“It was mostly our business helping out with fire response elsewhere as well as locally, meaning Philpot fire and some others and so our staff was busy and we just let that go.”

There were also concerns about the dryness in the park and they didn’t want to run the risk of starting a fire.

There had been discussions of widening parts of the road that are to narrow for vehicles to pass by each other.

Bennetto says some habitat issues prevent that.

“Some of those places it’s quite steep. Therefore to make the road wider you have to move a lot of material and that does impact habitat and things. So, we’re enhancing the pullouts that exist already.”

Bennetto says there is one area of a rock bluff they can’t work on for now because of habitat concerns.

It needs further study before anything can be done.

by Tom Mark