In order to meet the long-term service needs of the community, portions of Coquitlam’s Austin Works Yard will undergo a major renewal starting in early 2022.
COQUITLAM, B.C., Nov. 23, 2021 – In order to meet the long-term service needs of the community, portions of Coquitlam’s Austin Works Yard will undergo a major renewal starting in early 2022.
The Austin Works Yard, located at 500 Mariner Way, is the City’s primary public works operations centre and currently houses a number of critical municipal departments and services including, for example, Engineering and Public Works operations and maintenance (flood response, roads, snow removal, sewer and solid waste operations), parks operations and maintenance, traffic operations, fleet and equipment maintenance and the Coquitlam Animal Shelter.
The facility is near its operational capacity, and many of the structures, built as early as the late 1950s, have reached or are reaching the end of their usable life.
Project to Begin in Early 2022
The plans the Austin Works Yard Renewal include the following primary improvements:
- Expanding the Austin Works Yard within the existing lot boundaries to accommodate a new Fleet Maintenance and Workshop building, improve vehicle circulation, and increase fleet parking and storage space, which is currently near capacity.
- Constructing a new Fleet Maintenance and Workshop Building designed with post-disaster elements to continue to serve the community in the event of a major disaster.
- Converting vacated workshop spaces within the Water and Sewer Utility Building into administrative space.
- Demolishing the existing Fleet Maintenance and Auxiliary Building to convert into fleet parking and storage; and
- Realigning the public trails that currently pass within the Austin Works Yard property to Mundy Park.
The renewal of the Austin Works Yard will require the removal of trees within the Austin Works Yard property boundary, which will take place in early 2022 ahead of the bird-nesting season.
New Trail Alignments for Mundy Park
The Austin Works Yard Renewal Project provides the opportunity to undertake a separate initiative to realign two trails that currently pass within the Works Yard property boundary: the paved Mundy Park Community Path greenway, and the gravel Austin Trail Path.
Realigning these trails will allow for connection with a future planned extension to the King Albert Greenway, which supports the City’s Strategic Transportation Plan and expands transportation options for cyclists.
Staff have worked closely with a professional Forester/Arborist and a Landscape Architect to ensure that the realigned pathways avoid mature, large diameter trees. Hazardous trees with pre-existing defects, decay or potential for future risk will be removed from the new trail areas. However, any trees removed as part of the trail realignment work will be replaced by the City with native trees within the Mundy Park Forest Reserve boundary.
Project Timelines and Next Steps
More information, including a sign up for project email notifications, is available at www.coquitlam.ca/worksyard.
Site construction activities, including tree removal and trail realignment work is anticipated to start in early 2022. The trails will be substantially complete by summer 2022. Full construction is expected to last until 2024.
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Media contact
Scott Groves
Director, Strategic and Capital Projects
604-927-6967
sgroves@coquitlam.ca