The City of Prince George is applying for funding under the Urgent Flood Mitigation Works program. That is the $33 million dollar fund announced by the province at the end of March to upgrade flood protection throughout B.C..

The City’s Director of Development Services, Bob Radloff, says negotiations are underway with the Ministry of Environment to improve the 35-hundred metre stretch of River Road, from the Yellowhead Bridge to the Cameron Street Bridge.  But Radloff says it’s too early in discussions to pin a dollar figure on the project.

In a report received by City Councillors this evening, Chief Engineer, Dave Dyer, points out River Road does not meet Ministry of Environment flood protection levels and, while the entire road should be shored up, the most vulnerable section is 1640 meters from west of the Nechako Boat launch to the C.N. bridge.

The project identified by the City engineers calls for River Road to be raised. The lowest boost to the height of the road would be 0.2 of a meter, up to the highest increase of 1.7 meters (0.67 feet to 5.5 feet).

Councillor Don Zurowski wanted assurances any mitigation efforts would not tax the city’s capital funds.  "This is 3.5-kilometres of road," says Zurowski, "Commonly, that’s expensive when we talk about that distance, so I’d be delighted if that didn’t impact us from a capital perspective."

Radloff says, "In short, we want to get 100-percent funding from the province."  He says if anything changes during the course of discussions with MoE officials, staff would have to come back to council with that information.

To be eligible for the grant,the work must be nearing completion by the 15^th of May. Dave Dyer says the time line is tight, he says an aggressive approach can meet the required deadline.