The wharf refurbishment in Saint Andrews has been delayed another year.
At council this week, Mayor Brad Henderson announced that the project would need to wait until October 2025.
The reason for the delay, according to Henderson, is that environmental concerns were unsold by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“The issues that we experienced with DFO is the fact that, the I guess you could say, footprint of Market Square would be expanded and there was concern over mitigation habitat, meaning that if you’re going to take some – you had to find a way in which to replace it,” he said in an interview.
The mitigation cost could amount to somewhere around $1-million dollars.
Draft drawings for the new wharf. (Town of Saint Andrews)
“So we need to get this plan approved somehow or we need to alter the plan to something that has less of a footprint on the floor of the ocean,” Henderson said.
Henderson said the funding has been guaranteed through any outcome of an election, but says it is a bit frustrating to delay the project, especially given the involvement of the town’s engineers.
He said if the project were to start now, it would impact the tourist season for 2025, which is one Saint Andrews biggest economic drivers.
“The big concern about the project is we already have a weight restriction on our wharf and as this continues to be delayed, it is more of a risk that more weight restrictions could be imposed,” he said.
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