A flight of stairs will soon offer a way up the south face of Little Mountain.
At a council meeting Aug. 2, Chilliwack council approved a quote from House to Home Landscaping for $134,432.80 (plus taxes), and council has allocated a total budget of $200,000 to create the Little Mountain Stairs.
The base of the stairs, along with a new parking area, will be located on City property at 46963 Yale Road. The stairs will link the valley floor with a proposed greenbelt and trail network around the north, west and southwest areas of Little Mountain.
“This proposed greenbelt is an assembly of city owned and future remainder lands after the development of privately-owned parcels,” a City of Chilliwack news release explained. “The goal of the greenbelt is to protect and preserve the forest and incorporate trails, nodes, viewpoints and educational areas, while allowing members of the public to access the greenspace.”
“We are excited to move forward with this project that will help create more trails in the area,” said Chilliwack mayor Ken Popove. “The City’s Greenspace Plan sets out a vision for the future of our parks and constructing these stairs is a true next step to the future of greenspace in Little Mountain.”
The project comes with a high degree of construction difficulty. The route is on extremely steep hillside terrain and involves heavy lifting and machinery-access challenges. The existing ground slope of the corridor varies from 30 to slightly over 50 per cent.
Once complete, the stairs will feature an eight-foot-wide corridor, about 128 metres long, rising approximately 60 metres from the Yale Road parking lot to a potential trail connection point. Approximately 340 recycled plastic posts will be placed to act as stair treads.
RELATED: Chilliwack group seeking support to create ‘urban forest park’ on Little Mountain
RELATED: Chilliwack council warming up to Little Mountain Nature Park idea
@ProgressSports
eric.welsh@theprogress.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.