The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is undertaking a $7.4-million project to relocate the entrance to the Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill and make other improvements.
Over the past week trees that lined the landfill's northeast boundary along Foothills Boulevard were removed as part of the preparation work. Additionally, BC Hydro has been trees related to power lines near the landfill.
"The sightline change is quite different," said FFGRD environmental services general manager Petra Wildauer. "With the clearing, we can move forward with preparation for the construction of the new entrance and a new compost pad."
About 466 cubic metres of timber were removed.
The new entrance will be located about 500 metres north of the current entrance.
The landfill opened in 1976 and the entrance in its current state does not provide for expansion to properly accommodate the commercial and residential traffic load coming in and out of the landfill.
"Anyone familiar with the landfill knows what a bottleneck there can be at the entrance," said Wildauer. "This project not only allows us to address that, but we can make other needed site improvements as well."
The entrance relocation project provides the benefits of replacing aging infrastructure, improved public and commercial access, service and safety, increased efficiency of operations, minimized risk of adverse environmental impacts from leachate migration and future support of landfill gas utilization.
The project is being carried out in two phases: infrastructure upgrades and entrance relocation. The work is expected to be complete in the fall of 2017.
Wildauer said the trees provided a visual buffer between the road and the landfill and there will be a "re-greening" of some of the area that has been cleared and some new trees will be planted.
