By Duck Paterson
There has not been much happening in the area of the proposed new crossing of Holland Creek, off of Colonia Drive. Lamontland Inc. started the clearing and site preparation for the new crossing almost a year ago.
“There have been some unique, unforeseen issues come up and some of it has been the weather,” said Scott Lamont, of Lamontland Inc. “Almost two years ago, we started the serious planning for the crossing and then along came COVID and with it the supply chain issues.”
The multi-plate steel being used for the main culvert was originally to come from Poland. AIL, the company supplying the steel, was doing an upgrade at their Ontario plant so it needed to be moved, but with the delays the process was moved back to Ontario in October of last year. The multi-plate was delivered to the site in November of last year.
The site work, for the footings for the crossing, commenced in late September instead of the August start they wanted. “The hot dry summer put an extended stop to any work being done around the site so we had further delay there,” Lamont said. “Last fall didn’t improve our schedule, either. The hugely wet weather worked against us, locally, as well as the transportation of materials getting to the site in time.”
The work on the crossing and the footings started late in the fall. Then there was another setback when it was discovered the bedrock structure was different than first reported and it took until January to get the project back into action.
The design for the footings had to be re-worked Lamont hopes to restart work in three to four weeks.
The crossing is the same design that was presented to the town by the previous property owner two years ago. The multi-plate steel culvert is the portion that Holland Creek will run through, under the crossing, and on either side of the creek will be four metre wide by 23 metre long tunnels for trail users.
The actual structure is an MSE wall (Mechanically stabilized earth) design, with steel mesh overlay allowing for soils to be placed on top and natural plantings to be used to stop erosion and help keep the crossing blended with the natural settings.
MSE walls are a cost-effective structure that may withstand larger total and differential settlements compared to concrete walls. Their construction is simpler and quicker, as there is no need for support structures and curing time. They also exhibit high resistance in continuous and dynamic loads such as earthquakes.
Erosion is a major concern and Lamont was making sure it was nil or at most minimal.
Lamontland Inc. owns 42 acres of the property on the other side of Holland Creek, leading all the way up to Arbutus Hump. The project has set aside 35 per cent of the land to be park land and green space.
In total the project will see up to 160 units in the single family development.
“A lot of the homes will have lanes and others will have park frontages. Some of the townhomes will also have park frontages as well,” Lamont said. “The Holland Creek Trail will also have openings leading up to Arbutus Hump and there will be access from the development down to the Holland Creek Trail as well.”
The development will be phased but at this time the final configuration has not been finalized.