The city’s plans to replace a section of culvert crossing McIntyre Creek will not impact drivers on Mountainview Drive, built over the culvert.

“It won’t affect traffic at all,” assistant city engineer Taylor Eshpeter said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

The road has become an increasingly busy commuter route with the creation of the regularly-expanding Whistle Bend subdivision.

As Eshpeter explained, the work would be done at a small inlet crews will be able to access off the main road. The project area is just before the Porter Creek neighbourhood.

Planning has been done through this year. The project is now before the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) in the public comment period. Feedback is being welcomed until Nov. 14.

“The culvert crossing was built in 1981 and consists of two corrugated steel pipe culverts, each two metres in diameter,” it’s noted on the YESAB website.

“There are two corrugated culverts at that location. The work proposed includes replacing a section of the north culvert that has been uplifted and damaged by buoyancy and/or culverts, and placing riprap along the banks of the creek upstream of the culverts.”

The work would include:

• the installation of a temporary dam to isolate the north culvert;

• dewatering the area where work will be done inside the dam;

• removing the damaged section of the north culvert;

• installing a new culvert and structure at the inlet;

• installing streambank protection structures;

• excavating sediments and debris from creekbeds and upstream from the culvert;

• clearing brush;

• monitoring of turbidity downstream from the culvert; and

• site restoration.

Crews would be using fill, gravel and riprap with heavy equipment and fuel used during the anticipated one-month project, which would begin next June.

Into the future there would be long-term maintenance of the site.

It’s expected work next year would cost $125,000 next year, in addition to the $75,000 being spent this year on design and permitting processes so that it’s ready to go next year.

The funding for next year would first have to be approved through the city’s 2018 budget process.