Cow Bay Area Forestry Work churns through the brush

The sound of excavators has been a prominent noise for much of this week as some kind of land clearing project gets underway in an area near Cow Bay, the worksite seemingly stretching from behind the RONA building at Third Avenue East and carrying on towards George Hills Way exiting to the east of the Prince Rupert Yacht Club.

The City hasn't made any public notice mention of the ongoing work to date, but it could be tied into their plans for the Third Avenue Extension Project. 

That initiative which was included as part of the Official Community Plan document of 2020, is part of a project that will shift traffic flow away from the Cow Bay/Atlin Terminal area redirecting it towards Third Avenue and George Hills Way. 

A City of Prince Rupert Official Community Plan map
showing the path of the Third Avenue extension

The roadway would connect Third Avenue East with the newly named  Marina District which the City hopes to develop with residences, shops and other enterprises.

Excavator work from the RONA end of the site 

The last overview that was provided on the development came in January  when the City's Operations Director Richard Pucci observed of some challenges that the City had come across as part of their early work on the area in question.

"The Third Avenue Extension is approximately fifteen percent complete, we are doing new geotechnical investigation on that project. We have found some issues with some geo-tech there that we have to investigate to either pre-load or digging out" -- Operations Director Richard Pucci on the progress of the project back in January

The Third Avenue Extension was one of a number of transportation elements noted in March when the City put out a bid request for a Master Transportation Plan.

The Most recent Major project update from Mr. Pucci was delivered in April and at that time the current status of the Extension project was listed as at 15 percent complete; a placement it has held for the last six months dating back to the first of the City's Major Projects updates which came in November of 2021.

More notes on the range of infrastructure projects underway or in the planning stage can be explored from our archive page here.

A wider overview of past Council Discussion themes is available here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.