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VICTORIA – Residents of Zeballos and Fair Harbour will benefit from $640,000 to improve travel and safety conditions on the Zeballos and Fair Harbour Forest Service roads, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell and Community Development Minister Kevin Krueger announced today.
“We want to ensure that crucial Forest Service roads that connect rural communities, parks and wilderness areas in British Columbia receive the maintenance needed to keep those communities accessible,” said Bell. “We’re providing $500,000 in additional safety improvements on the Zeballos Forest Service road, and another $140,000 for the Fair Harbour Forest Service road that connects Fair Harbour and Kyuquot.”
Improvements to the Zeballos Forest Service road, including repairs and sub-grade reconstruction, will provide safer year-round access for residents and visitors to the communities of Zeballos and Walter’s Cove as well as the First Nations communities of Ehattis, Ocluje and Houpsitas. The ministry spent $356,000 on upgrades in September 2008.
“Improvements to the
Zeballos Forest Service road will give residents better access to health-care
services, strengthen connections between communities and allow for a wider
range of economic opportunities,” said Krueger. “In addition, they will allow
more visitors seeking adventures on the west coast of
The road
to Zeballos turns off Highway 19 just north of Woss. The 43-kilometre gravel
logging road continues past Zeballos to
The community of Fair Harbour, located northwest of Zeballos on the eastern shore of Kyuquot Sound, provides support to remote villages whose populations total around 150 as well as remote logging camps. A water taxi service to Kyuquot is key in shuttling goods and people to the First Nation community.
The Fair Harbour Forest Service road includes a causeway spanning a
sensitive marine estuary. The original causeway has been degraded by tidal
water and needs to be lifted up to improve vertical alignment of the road and
to protect the estuary from further tidal erosion. This funding will provide
for professional engineering designs and professional biological assessments to
rebuild the causeway and protect the estuary.
“The Fair Harbour Forest Service road is used as a critical link between Fair Harbour and Kyuquot,” said Krueger. “Planning will provide safer access for residents and visitors to First Nations communities and many remote recreational sites. We’re pleased that the provincial government is providing the funds needed to ensure that this road is safe for the people in our rural communities who rely on it.”
British Columbia’s 55,000-kilometre network of Forest Service roads is bigger than the provincial highway system. As first announced by Premier Gordon Campbell at the 2008 Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, the Ministry of Forests and Range is providing $20 million over two years to improve travel conditions on Forest Service roads that serve as crucial transportation links for rural communities and recreation sites.
New road maintenance funding is the latest in a series of initiatives to improve safety on Forest Service roads, which include the establishment of radio protocols, enforcement of speed limits though expanded use of radar guns, and the expansion of the Vehicle Identification Plates Program.
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Public Affairs Officer Ministry of Forests and Range 250 387-4592 |
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