Think twice about driving or walking near the Consolidated Wastewater Treatment Plant construction site.
The City of Powell River says starting this week, traffic on the haul road will be restricted.
That means accessing and passing through the site will be open to construction traffic only.
This comes after several near-misses between vehicles and construction vehicles on the road.
The city says with a marked increase in both public and construction traffic using the road, the need for restrictions became evident.
The continuing off-site hauling of excavated materials, the upcoming start of concrete pours and the increasing frequency of deliveries to the construction site created the potential for a serious incident or accident between the public and construction traffic.
The northern restriction will be on the haul road south of the access road to the Tla’amin lands adjacent to the city transfer barge facility.
The southern restriction will be at the WFP log dump.
Signage is installed, and a flagger will be posted at the northern gate for the first few days to inform everyone of the closure.
Initially, it’ll be for a month with weekly reviews of its effectiveness, and modifications to the plan will be made as required.
In a release, the city says that while it “recognizes the desire to access First Beach for recreation, in the interests of the public and construction personnel safety, these increased traffic restrictions through the CWWTP site are necessary to reduce the chances of an accident or incident occurring on the haul road.”
