MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – County council has authorized administration to proceed with formal engineering for Westward Ho Campground bank stabilization at an estimated cost of $120,000.
The county-owned campground is located east of Sundre along the Little Red Deer River.
The Westward Ho Campers Association had commissioned a study of river bank erosion at the site. The study was conducted by Cascade Water Resources Inc.
The report determined that there were six areas of concern, totalling approximately 470 metres of the stream’s bank. One area was deemed high risk, four were moderate risk, and one low risk.
The current estimated cost of actually doing the full remediation work at the campground is $1.16 million.
“Obviously that is subject to change based on final engineering and inflationary pressures as we move forward,” said Jeff Holmes, chief administrative officer.
“The project that we would proceed with in 2024 at the direction of council at this point is exclusively the engineering. We would not actually undertake the remediation work.”
The engineering work will involve all six areas of concerns, council heard.
The engineering would need to be completed before an application could be made to conduct remediation work, and council in turn would have to approve a remediation project before any work could proceed.
“This is Mountain View County looking after its assets,” said Coun. Peggy Johnson, whose Division 6 includes the campground.
