Squamish is raising its dike thanks to a much-needed provincial and federal cash injection.
On Friday (May 2), officials in Ottawa announced 26 communities throughout B.C. would be handed funding for flood protection. The federal and provincial governments and the District of Squamish have committed to a joint infrastructure investment with each body contributing approximately $603,517.
The $1.8 million project will raise and widen the Squamish River Dike by an additional 800 linear metres.
Without financial backing from the upper levels of government, the project would represent a huge burden to taxpayers, said Rod MacLeod, the municipality’s director of engineering.
In 2011, the district initiated a study examining the community’s dike heights and the depth of adjacent rivers. Many of Squamish’s dikes were built in the 1970s. As a result, chunks of the flood protection structures don’t meet the province’s new guidelines, MacLeod said, noting the dike in the North Yards, at the eagle viewing area and near Judd Slough in Brackendale were highlighted as the most critical.
A year ago, a sinkhole was discovered in the Squamish River dike in Brackendale, just north of the eagle viewing area. Engineers suspected the two-foot-wide sinkhole was created by groundwater moving below the dike.
“It was determined a bunch of places needed to be raised,” MacLeod said.
The latest funding will add to work completed last year along the dike in the North Yards neighbourhood. Previously raised sections of the dike beside the West Coast Railway Heritage Museum will be reinforced to combat erosion. Work on the dike continue along to the CN Rail bridge. The entire project will span three kilometres, MacLeod said.
Since the beginning of his stint in federal politics, the safety and health of people in the Squamish area has been threatened by flooding, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky County MP John Weston said in a statement.
“The flood protection measures to be funded by this investment are several big steps forward,” Weston said.
