A contractor has been found to construct a pedestrian and cycling pathway on Lakelse Ave. from its intersection with Apsley St. to the Old Skeena Bridge but a start date has yet to be determined.
Bear Creek Contracting was the successful company with a price of $321,410.65, said City of Terrace public works and engineering director Jonathan Lambert.
The city has assigned a provincial grant of $921,352 for the work connected to the project which is called the Lakelse Gateway, a one-kilometre asphalt surface that’s to be three metres wide and separated for safety from the road.
The Bear Creek contract does not include paving, concrete curbing, landscaping or a custom sign feature at Apsley to note the start of the pathway. Those costs will take up the remainder of the budget.
A start date hinges on when the provincial transportation and infrastructure ministry will begin work on a wholesale rehabilitation of the Old Skeena Bridge.
That project will require the bridge to be closed for significant lengths of time and having the pathway work done at the same time will lessen the impact on drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
“A start date is yet to be determined, as we are awaiting [the ministry’s] scheduled bridge closure, but construction will begin this year,” Lambert said.
This pathway will replace a dirt and gravel narrow pathway.
And the city did receive two acceptable bids on work to remove potential rock falling hazards along sections of the planned pathway from Apsley Street where it meets Lakelse Ave. to the old Skeena Bridge.
A bid winner has yet to be released.
A survey of the pathway revealed work was needed along 348 metres of exposed rock above the pathway.
Periodic work has been done to remove the possibilities of rock falls but with far more people expected to use the improved pathway, the city has decided a more direct approach is needed.
In the meantime, word is expected soon on the provincial government’s choice of a contractor to undertake the significant rehabilitation of the Old Skeena Bridge.
The province put a price tag of $19 million on the project but the three bids that did come in by the deadline are in excess of that amount.
One is for $23,998,000, a second is for $22,659,916 and a third if for $22,659,915.82 — just 18 cents higher than the second bid.
The Old Skeena Bridge work includes repairing steelwork structures and other foundations and removing rust and lead primer followed by a new paint job.
And to improve passage along the sidewalk portion for pedestrians, cyclists and others who use wheeled devices, the ministry will bump out the sidewalk, making it wider at six key points.