The City of Delta is hoping to get some dollars to help shore up the dike at Boundary Bay.
At its Dec. 5 meeting, council approved a staff recommendation to apply for a grant through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program – Green Infrastructure – Adaptation and Disaster Mitigation program. The city is hoping to get the funding as well as money for potential cost increases, including any unexpected costs, for the proposed Boundary Bay dike improvement project in a cost-sharing arrangement
The project is to improve approximately 500 metres of dike by increasing the dike crest elevation from approximately 3.4 metres geodetic to 4.7 metres geodetic along the Boundary Bay Dike Trail, between 72nd and 88th streets.
The project is to address future sea level rise.
The government program includes a shared financial contribution of 40 per cent from the federal government, 33.3 percent from the province and 26. 67 per cent from municipal government.
The City of Delta’s commitment would total $411,923.
A staff report notes that as it’s a small-scale pilot project, the risk of cost overruns is low.
At this year’s Union of BC Municipalities convention, a resolution to encourage the province to engage in consultation with local governments regarding dike funding was passed.
The Metro Vancouver Flood Resiliency Task Force, meanwhile, will continue to lobby the province on diking infrastructure in the B.C.
The province this September announced that it is gathering public feedback through its released Intentions Paper outlining a proposed flood strategy that will manage flood safety risks in B.C.
The purpose is to also re-engage First Nations, Indigenous organizations and local governments.
A section looking at strengthening dikes and regulatory programs notes that more than 216 dikes in B.C are provincially regulated. They protect 16,000 hectares of land containing well over half a million people and thousands of buildings, with a total estimated value of more than $100 billion.
Currently, the vast majority no longer meet provincial standards, with one study estimating only five per cent of all dikes in the Lower Mainland meet current standards, the Intentions Paper warns.
A Delta staff report earlier this year on the city’s flood protection and infrastructure initiatives outlined some ominous numbers facing the city, which has more than 67 km of dikes that require seismic and other upgrades to meet the latest standards.
Facing the risk of flooding from coastal storm surges as well as the Fraser River spring freshet, the estimated cost, so far, for dike raising and seismic improvements by 2100 is at more than $1.9 billion, with the first phase alone, excluding seismic improvements, tabbed at $350 million.
