CHMA speaks with Kevin Bekkers, the Nova Scotia lead for the Chignecto Isthmus Resiliency Project, which will replace or fortify 35 kilometres of dykes that span New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Bekkers describes a smaller project underway today, to back up dykes along the La Planche River outside of Amherst.
The section of dyke targeted by the current $2 million project was identified by Nova Scotia’s maintenance program as weak and at risk of failure, says Bekkers. The access road and berm project will give his department more options in the case of a breach, and is “part of the contingency plan we have to survive until that larger project is implemented and completed.”
“Until that is commissioned,” says Bekkers, “we are vulnerable to a storm event from mother nature.”
