Work on the city’s new storm outfall on Third Avenue should be completed by the end of the month, according to contractor Craig Bowerman. The storm outfall is the last stage of the Dry Creek flood mitigation project. The initial phase of the project involved channel improvements along Dry Creek itself to deal with the flooding in that area.
The work held up this December, with the only flooding being minor and localized to the Bute Street and Third Avenue area.
The work held up this December, with the only flooding being minor and localized to the Bute Street and Third—something the new storm outfall should mitigate, according to City of Port Alberni engineering technician Boyd Wong.
“What we’re trying to achieve there is to install another storm outfall to help alleviate the flooding that we get in that area, in front of Deja Vu Books. We always seem to have issues with water sitting in that area when we have heavy rains,” said Wong.
Currently, Bowerman said that the storm outfall itself will be completed by the end of March, with paving running into April.
“We’re lowering sewer lines in,” Bowerman said.
The storm outfall will go just south of the Husky gas station; the city’s current one in the area goes under the gas station property.
According to the city’s director of finance Cathy Rothwell, the city has $2.7 million allocated for the Dry Creek flood works—split into three funding pieces between the province, the federal government and the city.
The project was contracted out to Bowerman Excavating and including the storm outfall, has cost $2.3 million to date.
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