Kingsclear First Nation recently opened a new pedestrian tunnel under Highway 102 connecting the upper and lower parts of the community historically bisected by the provincial highway. The highway separates many of the residential areas of the community from basic services including; health care, Band Administration Hall and the community school. The project was initiated after Alyssia Paul was struck and killed by a vehicle in September 2018. This project was conceived by Dillon well in advance of this tragedy; many efforts were made by Dillon and our partners at KFN to address this danger over the past several years. Additionally, the community leadership had been lobbying the provincial government to lower the speed limit (100 km/hour) along that stretch of high-speed roadway for over ten years.
After the accident, Kingsclear First Nation took it upon themselves to have a pedestrian-cyclist underpass built to make sure this needless tragedy would not happen again. Dillon was retained to develop the preliminary and detailed designs for the pedestrian tunnel within only a couple of months. The underpass was designed, complete with landscape lighting and security systems. Our team also provided contract administration during construction. The project was completed in its entirety (regulatory approvals, design, contracting and substantial construction) in a period of just over three months utilizing significant community labour (over 40%) and was officially opened to pedestrian foot traffic before the Christmas holidays.
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