The deteriorating Mill Creek trail system will be repaired, the city decided Tuesday.
A report delivered to city council outlines almost $500,000 worth of work needed to keep the trail system usable.
According to the city, recent high water events have eroded banks and compromised the integrity of trails. At least three areas in the ravine show major signs of deterioration.
“The problem is Mill Creek is now two flows,” Ward 8 Councillor Ben Henderson said Tuesday.
However, a resident near the ravine believes the city is overlooking the cause of the erosion: a surplus of storm water that has no place to go.
“There’s a heck of a pile of water that goes roaring down that creek, which not only makes quite a safety concern, in case anybody should fall into it, but it knocks the heck out of the banks, the trees are falling in, and of course, pathways in certain spots are caving in and falling into the creek as well,” said Allan Bolstad, civics director of the Richie Community League.
“What I’m so disappointed about was the report didn’t address the cause of the problem,” he added. “It talked about repairing the path in different spots, which is fine, but they’re going to be repairing that path every second year in different spots, given the amount of water that’s roaring down there after each rainstorm.”
Henderson acknowledged the same concern.
“We need to keep that trail system going, that's what today's report was about... but I think there's a larger piece of work and that's looking at the overall flow through that creek to begin with.”
Bolstad said the problem predates EPCOR, which was made responsible for drainage two years ago.
EPCOR told CTV News it was looking at ways to reduce flows of storm water into Mill Creek.
Rehabilitation work on the trail system is slated to begin in the fall.
With files from Dan Grummett
