The Corporation of Delta is planning to build a bridge to complete a walking trail in Ladner Harbour Park.
Delta council approved a staff recommendation to hire a consultant to design the bridge. It will complete a pedestrian loop that was interrupted after the province removed an old bridge in 2009 due to its poor condition.
Funding for the replacement is estimated at $35,000.
Parks and recreation director Ken Kuntz said the province, which owns the protected marshland on the other side, didn't want to replace the bridge because it worried feral rabbits would spread from the park and was also concerned about the nearby off-leash dog area.
Victoria was willing to approve the replacement after the rabbits were neutered and the off-leash area was removed. Coun. Ian Paton said he wants a new bridge because people have been complaining about the incomplete loop. The Liberal candidate in Delta South, Paton said he talked to Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson about it.
"We're not building a bridge that you can drive a truck over, it's gonna be a bridge that's four feet wide so people can walk across or ride their bikes," he said. "Hopefully it will be a wooden structure with an environmental theme to it, not some big gaudy steel structure."
Municipal staff hopes to have a design by summer.
