Prince George city council supported an administration recommendation to spend $430,000 from the capital expenditure fund to permanently install a one-lane bridge on Ferguson Lake Road that was temporarily put in place when a drainage cross-culvert under the road failed on May 10, causing a section of the road to wash out.
The vote was made at council's meeting on Monday, Sept. 9.
The washout was triggered by a sudden surge of water on a seasonal creek when a natural dam on the creek upstream from the road suddenly burst. Because it is a fish-bearing creek, immediate re-installation of a culvert was not feasible due to regulatory requirements and a prefabricated one-lane bridge was installed on May 11.
City staff determined the bridge is functioning well to serve recreational users to the Ferguson Lake recreation area and the single-lane option is about half the $870,000 cost of replacing the two-lane culvert.
