Frequently Asked Questions

The Cedar Drive and Partington Creek Upgrade Project is a multi-phase project to extend the sewer system, mitigate flooding, enhance Partington Creek and provide transportation upgrades.

The soil in the area of the planned roadway is poor, and will settle over time. Preload is gravel and fill that is placed for a number of months so that as much of the settlement can happen prior to constructing the utilities, road surface, and other features, which are negatively affected by settlement. The preload will be placed in phases, and will be approximately 2 metres higher than the planned roadway.

Once construction is finished, the upper section of Cedar Drive will be about 1.5 metres higher than the existing Cedar Drive, and about 3.5 metres higher than the nearby farmland.

Trunk sanitary sewers are the lower, and larger pipes in the City’s sewer network. In this project, the trunk sanitary mains will carry sewage to the new pump station that is being constructed on Cedar Drive. Smaller sewer pipes carry sewage from residential and commercial buildings to the trunk sewers.

A forcemain is a pipe that is under pressure and carries sewage that is pumped from one location to another. In this project, the new forcemain will take sewage from the new sanitary pump station being installed on Cedar Drive to a sanitary sewer main on Coast Meridian Road.

Traffic impacts will be moderate in 2021 because most of the work that is being done will be off of the road. Most of the work will involve dumping and placing the preload gravel and fill material.

In 2022 there will be significant impacts because the trunk sanitary sewer will be installed in the roadway. We will provide notice about traffic impacts prior to starting construction on the sewer pipes.

To reduce traffic impacts, City staff are looking at drilling to install the sanitary forcemain, if it is possible and cost effective. There will be times when Cedar Drive will be closed during construction (in 2022) and traffic will be detoured to upper Victoria Drive. In the upper section of Cedar Drive, the plan is to install the new sewer main in the old road so it will not be installed until the new road is in place.

New sewer mains and drainage mains will be installed on upper Victoria Drive. This work will be coordinated with the Cedar Drive/Partington Creek project in order to help minimize the impacts.

Overall, the project will have large benefits for the environment. The project includes a large increase in riparian area and an increase in aquatic habitat, connecting to Partington Creek. There will be impacts such as removal of trees in a corridor from Cedar Drive to upper Victoria Drive, but overall there will be more benefits than impacts.

These culverts will help the creek in a couple of ways. During high flows, such as during a heavy rain storm, some of the water from Partington Creek will be diverted into the channel, at the upper end of the project. This diversion will prevent Partington Creek from spilling onto the roadway and the small bridges that cross the creek. During periods of low flows, the culverts will feed small pools in the channel, which will provide new aquatic habitat for fish, such as salmon fry.

Native species of vegetation and trees will be planted.

The section of old Cedar Drive will stay in place to provide access to the adjacent properties. Once development happens and old Cedar Drive is not needed anymore, the road will be downgraded to a gravel pathway to further increase the riparian area and to allow for access to utilities (sewer main, water main, gas main, hydro lines, TELUS lines, etc.).

The location of the multi-use pathway along new Cedar Drive will provide a safe location for pedestrians and cyclists and will include new lighting. For the time being, old Cedar Drive will stay in place to provide access to the adjacent properties.  The plan is that, at some point in the future, old Cedar Drive won’t be needed anymore and it can be downgraded to a gravel pathway (as noted above). This is dependent on redevelopment happening, and getting different access to the nearby properties.

The work is not currently scheduled in our five-year capital plan.