By Dominic Abassi

City removing 1,300 trees to make way for transformative Boxwood Connector project

Mar 1, 2019 | 4:56 PM

NANAIMO — More than 1,000 trees are in the process of being removed in central Nanaimo to make way for a major transportation project.

Tree removal on a City-owned lot between Northfield, Rosstown and Bowen roads began this week, marking the first phase of what the City calls the Boxwood Connector project.

Capital project management specialist Kurtis Noble said the trees are being taken down now, ahead of the upcoming bird nesting window. He said the removal is in accordance with the tree protection bylaw.

“Of the total 1,300, it’s important to note over three-quarters of these trees are smaller sized Alders, Cottonwoods and Willows,” Noble said.

When the City got underway with the Georgia Greenway project in Harewood in 2018, they met with stiff opposition from area residents concerned about the removal of three mature trees. The work was temporarily put on hold for several months before resuming.

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Noble said the Boxwood Connector situation “certainly isn’t like the Georgia Greenway project, where we unfortunately had to face conflicts with large, significant trees.”

He said the City’s work in the area will actually lead to environmental improvements and cleanup, because it was historically used as a dumping site for coal waste and construction fill.

The estimated $12 to $15 million project will see the creation of a man-made stormwater runoff pond, new landscaping and walking paths through the area.

Construction of the new connector road, identified as a major piece in the 2014 transportation master plan, isn’t slated to begin until 2022.

The new design will see Boxwood carry on over Northfield, beside the Esso gas station, and connect straight to Rosstown Rd. Rosstown will become a dead-end and access to Bowen will be closed. Instead, another road will lead to Bowen, where a lighted intersection will be installed at the south entrance to Beban Park.

“The overall goal is to divert a lot of the traffic that is turning right from Bowen onto Northfield and also traffic turning left from Northfield onto Bowen. Having that sort of bypass will get that traffic away from there and we know that’s a high percentage of the volume moving through there.”

Noble noted the Northfield-Bowen intersection is one of the busiest in the city and is a high-crash location.

He said there will be plenty of attention paid to the impact of adding another traffic light less than 200 metres from the existing one at Bowen and Northfield.

“Those lights will obviously have to be coordinated with the existing lights at Bowen and Northfield. It is a short distance away so we’ve completed several studies over the years to properly understand the impact.”

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi