The popular Canyon View Trail, where it travels through the Station View Trail section beside the BC Hydro penstocks and surge towers, will be closed for six days between Jan. 18 and Feb. 1.
During these closures people can walk the trail on either side of the Campbell River but the trail loop will not be in place.
The temporary closure, for construction safety, is related to the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project. To connect the new underground powerhouse to the existing John Hart substation, new power cables will be installed. Work has begun and some of this work will be occurring along the trail. Trail users along the Station View Trail will encounter construction activities over the next three months. There may be intermittent and short duration delays on the trail, with the work located on the south side of the pedestrian bridge crossing over the three penstocks. Flaggers will be on hand when needed to advise pedestrians of delays, or assist in safely navigating temporary alternative routes.
The trail closures required near the substation area will be on Jan. 18, 19, 22, 23, 31, and Feb. 1, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is due to the heavy equipment required at this early stage of the site preparations and the limited workspace available for the construction activities. Signage will be in place to alert trail users.
Other incidental full day trail closures may be needed in the future, and if so, BC Hydro says it will communicate those dates in advance.
“The overall impacts to the public’s use of the Canyon View Trail through BC Hydro’s property since construction began in 2014 have been very minimal because of the great design of the new generating station facility – it’s all underground,” says BC Hydro spokesperson, Stephen Watson. “Our contractor, InPower BC, is very aware of the value of the trail to the community and the balance of doing the work safely for crews and the public.”
In 2017, the project team discovered during the excavation and geotech drilling process that the slope down to the substation was not suitable for the ground works needed to install the power cable trays from the powerhouse to the substation. The project will now be installing H-frame poles to carry the cables. The use of H-frame poles allows for flexibility in their placement.