PORT HARDY, B.C. – The route to popular tourist destinations like Cape Scott Provincial Park will be closed for days at a time this summer.
Crews will replace seven bridges along the San Josef Main Forest Service Road.
According to a release from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, the San Josef Main will be closed for construction on:
- Monday, June 18th to Thursday, June 21st
- Monday, June 25th to Thursday, June 28th
- Tuesday, September 4th to Friday, September 7th
- Tuesday, September 11th to Friday, September 14th
The Regional District of Mount Waddington is not too pleased about this plan, according to Chair Andrew Hory. He said they were not even consulted about the construction dates.
“We didn’t get anything basically,” he said.
“We responded after the fact, letting them know that this is an extremely poor choice of timing and it’s a very significant obstruction to people making plans, people that might not know that this is happening until they are actually at a point where they cannot continue (their travels).”
Hory said that he understands there might be some weather constraints, but better planning options should be looked at.
“Maybe they want to do it when it’s dry. However, even if it adds a day to each closure, doing them outside their planned time window, it might be better to have a longer closure,” he said.
“The use (of the road) will fluctuate and the season is always unknown until it happens, but I think all things considered, we can expect an extreme possibility that we will see a very popular destination.”
He noted that the regional district has sent a letter to the ministry, outlining their concerns. A response has yet to be received.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work over the last 20 years to sell the North Island as a great destination for eco-tourist type activity and now we’re going to throw a major wrench into a great deal of that activity,” he said.
“Somebody traveling from Germany is not going to have a secondary back-up plan that goes, ‘oh, I’m not going to Cape Scott, I’m gonna go somewhere else.’ They’re just going to be stuck and stranded. We’re not happy about it at all, and we’re hoping to see this change.”
