It’s still too early for people to have full access to Muskoseepi Park. The park reopened to the public a week ago, after being closed for several days due to flooding.
However, Grande Prairie residents are being asked to continue to stick to paved trails as more inspections are done. Transportation manager Robert Carroll says the water is still too high to fully assess the damage.
“We haven’t gotten to the point of the investigation that we wanted to as of yet. We’re going to wait for the water to go down a little bit more and get some staff in to take a closer look at some of the stream banks and the erosion that’s occurred.”
Carroll says there are quite a few sections that they can already tell are unstable. The biggest worry is that someone could get hurt or more damage could be done.
“What concerns us right now is the erosion that’s occurred, and with the banks being unstable there’s always a possibility of the bank eroding further with people walking on them or cycling on them. We suggest for the time being that people stay away from the edges of the stream banks.”
The high water levels and fast moving current could also be dangerous. Once the full extent of the damage can be assessed, Carroll says the city will have to develop strategies to address it.
“Putting barriers up, stabilizing banks, or restricting access; I think it will probably be a combination of those.”
Carroll notes that the Bear Creek corridor will always have natural issues with erosion. The structures are bridges in the Bear Creek corridor weren’t affected by the flash flooding on April 28th.