Coquitlam receives $4.4 million in federal funding for three-year Cedar Drive relocation project

Coquitlam is relocating a flood-prone road and getting the federal government to foot a portion of the bill. 

On Nov. 3, the city and Ron McKinnon, MP for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, announced a joint-investment of roughly $11 million to the Cedar Drive Upgrade Project in northeast Coquitlam. 

“Today’s investment in supporting flood mitigation in Coquitlam will better protect the homes, businesses and livelihoods of Canadians in order to reduce the risks and harm from climate change,” McKinnon stated in a press release last week. 

The project, which has been ongoing since 2020, is aimed at reducing flooding from Partington Creek and widening Cedar Drive so it can fit two lanes of traffic, street lights, and a multi-use pathway. 

“The Cedar Drive Upgrade Project is one of the largest current infrastructure projects in our community,” stated Coun. Dennis Marsden. 

The investment from the federal government — $4.4 million from the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund — will go toward moving the new roadway slightly east and relocating hydro and gas utilities from the old Cedar Drive to the new road, said Mark Zaborniak, Coquitlam’s manager of design and construction.  

Coquitlam is contributing about $6.6 million to the project. 

In addition to building a new roadway, the city is also expected to create a new environmental channel that will connect with Partington Creek, a waterway that has a tendency to flood in the fall and winter due to heavy rainfall and sediment. 

“That creek floods every two years, over the last many years,” Zaborniak said. “Recently, it’s been flooding overtop of the road every year.” 

The new channel is set to include trees, shrubs, and native species that will provide riparian habitat for fish in the creek and more room for water when flows are high. It will also have a culvert to regulate water flow and sediment ponds to ensure there is enough water for the high number of salmon who spawn in the creek. 

“I think it’s one of the best salmon spawning creeks around,” Zaborniak said. “So we’re trying to protect the creek and make it better.” 

The new channel is scheduled to go between the new Cedar Drive and old roadway, which is not expected to be replaced, according to Zaborniak.

“It provides access to six homes, which all have driveways which connect to the old road,” he said, adding that the city may look at new ways to access those homes and decommission the old road in the future. 

But no plans are imminent. 

Since 2021, the city has been acquiring “preload” — primarily glacial till from excavations throughout Coquitlam — to provide a base for the new road. 

However, Zaborniak said, the city needed the new funding to acquire more preload for the new road, which will stand 5.5 metres high, a 1.5 metre increase from the old road. 

The project is scheduled to be completed in phases over the next three years. 

Acquisition and setting of preload is going to take place for another year. Construction on the channel, meanwhile, is going to take place next year. 

In 2025, the sediment ponds will be developed and the new channel will be connected to Partington Creek.  The new Cedar Drive and multi-use path will be complete in 2026, Zaborniak said. 

Ultimately, he added, the new federal funding gives the city runway to finish the project they started nearly four years ago. 

“It allows us to proceed with the schedule that we have.”