As the Gallant Avenue storm sewer project comes to a completion, Deep Cove residents and business owners showed their deep appreciation for the construction workers earlier this month.
The rain couldn’t stop residents from coming out and providing lunch and gifts to the workers who had been working under tough conditions since the project started in the spring.
“Throughout the year these guys and valiant traffic ladies have demonstrated concern for our safety and mobility with patience and consideration,” resident Janet Pavlik wrote in a statement.
“Everyone is looking forward now to the new year and the beautification of Deep Cove. It will be great to walk in the park again and visit with neighbours in the village square!”
The new storm drain runs 140 metres from the top of Gallant Avenue all the way down to the beach in Panorama Park. It is two metres in diameter, which required crews to dig a trench four to five metres wide and four metres deep.
To make way for the sewer, a total of 65 trees, some 20 to 30 metres tall, were cut down in February.
This included 30 trees along upper Gallant Avenue and into Panorama Park, and a further 35 trees at the top of Naughton Avenue, to enable construction of the temporary traffic detour.
The drain was completed in time for the massive rainstorm that hit southern British Columbia in November and early December, which saw the West Vancouver weather station record 157 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour period.
Now the project has been completed, the District of North Vancouver will soon decide what happens to the detour that is currently in place along Naughton Avenue.
Public feedback regarding next steps closed on Dec. 12, and the decision will come from three possible outcomes, including remediating it to how it was before construction; keeping it open only for bikes, walking and emergency vehicles; or upgrading it to a permanent link to Deep Cove Village for vehicles, bikes and walking.
A date for a decision at council in the new year has not yet been set.
