Posted on June 14, 2023
New money is flooding into the City of Barrie’s Sophia Creek upgrades.
Council approved a $1.3 million increase in the budget for the creek’s Owen tributary storm outlet project, to dredge about 1,100 cubic metres of sediment from the Bayfield basin transient marina between Oct. 15 and Dec. 15.
“The need to dredge within the marina was not known at the time of project initiation,” city engineering project manager Rachel Graham said in a recent report to councillors. “There are environmental timing windows and operational timing restrictions to undertake dredging within the marina.”
Overall, the project is intended to reduce flooding issues in the downtown core by installing a new stormwater outlet that will start at Memorial Square, run underneath Heritage Park and exit at the Bayfield basin. Post-dredging construction work is expected to be tendered in 2024.
The increase bumps up the total budget for the project to nearly $2.3 million.
“By maintaining the overall project schedule, we will not delay the storm sewer installation needed to reduce the risk of flood impacts and property damage within the downtown core,” Graham said.
This new outlet needs to be built before improvements to Heritage Park are made and trunk storm sewers can be installed further upstream along Clapperton, Owen and Sophia streets.
