HACI: Parking Restrictions While Work Underway At Gorge & Whaletown Docks

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Harbour Authority Cortes Island is asking the public to not use its upper Gorge Harbour parking lot or park at the Whaletown Commercial Dockhead until further notice. There is work underway at both locations.  

"A few years ago the Harbour Authority entered into a lease agreement with MOTI, the Ministry of Transportation, and we actually hold the road allowance leases for the lower part of Robertson Road. We  did some clearing,  graveled and then developed a parking lot," explained Harbourmaster Jenny Hartwick.

"There is a second area that is leased by the Harbor Authority,  immediately adjacent to  the BC Hydro's yard.  Recognizing that there is very serious congestion and a real lack of parking for the commercial users that use the Gorge Dock, the Harbor Authority is moving ahead with some plans to clear and develop the parking area adjacent to  the hydro yard. We hope to make several more parking spaces available that we'll be able to offer to our mortgage agreement holders and commercial users."

Cortes Currents: Is the dock closed? 

Jenny Hartwick: "The Gorge commercial dock is open.  It's commercial use only at that particular dock.  We don't take recreational users there. The dock is full to the brim with our regular commercial users." 

Cortes Currents: When does the work in the upper parking lot begin and how long will it last?

Jenny Harwick: "It sounds like the contractors will be in at the beginning of next week to clear the upper lots. So at this point in time, the request is simply that individuals who have left vehicles, boats, boat trailers, anything that's being stored in the current parking areas at the Gorge Commercial Dock find alternate areas to leave their vehicles while this project is happening. Contractors need access to the space. There will be heavy machinery operating in that area."

"We don't expect it to take a significant amount of time, but we do have material and there are some things which need to be shuffled from the new lot, which is being cleared, into the lower lot for a temporary time while these upgrades happen."

"Once the upgrades are complete, we'll be reaching out to the community with phase two of the parking plan and that will start to address the allocation of spots for the commercial users." 

Cortes Currents: What’s happening at the Whaletown dock?

Jenny Hartwick: "The Whaletown Commercial dock wharfhead is, until further notice, closed to all vehicle traffic. There are some substructure issues which we need to address.  None of which are debilitating, but they do need to be addressed before in good conscience we can allow vehicle traffic on to that facility again. The dock does remain open. There's no absolutely 0 concerns in terms of accessing that facility by foot."

"We will be building a barricade.  We are trying to source a dolly or a wheelbarrow for those individuals who do need to be transporting larger amounts of material. So the dock and the wharf head do remain open to foot traffic. You can bicycle, you can do everything you want on the dock. We just ask that you do not bring a vehicle onto the wharf head at this time." 

"The community may or may not know that   the whale town commercial dock is not one of the small craft harbors owned facilities on the island.  It was an old transport Canada dock, which was divested to the harbor authority in the late 2000s."

"When the dock was divested to the harbor authority, it was brought up to good standards and has been maintained at that level for a number of years. However 20 plus years have gone by and there are some structural elements, which need to be addressed."

"We just had a phenomenal structural survey done. The structure of the dock does look good, but there are a few maintenance concerns."