A contract worth $2.6 million has been awarded to Mainland Civil Works Inc. to complete the first phase of a reclamation program for Strong Pit and Brown Pit.
Both pits are located in the Aldergrove area and within the Agricultural Land Reserve. The project will rehabilitate each pit so they can once again be used as valuable agricultural land.
The reclamation involves rehabilitating depleted gravel pits and restoring them with nutrient-rich soils suitable for plant growth. Work involves levelling the ground, placing topsoil and improving area drainage.
Pit reclamation is required for all gravel pits throughout the province once they are no longer suitable for gravel production. This work takes large areas of industrial lands and converts them to high value farm, park land or other potential development lands.
Work has already begun and this first phase will be completed in February, 2012. Some additional work will be required to complete the final site reclamation at Brown Pit in Langley Township. Brown Pit has been inactive since the construction of Highway 1 was completed in the 1960s and a proposal to re-activate it for the Gateway project was rejected.
Strong Pit, on the Abbotsford side of the border, is still in active production and was used for the Gateway project. It will be progressively reclaimed over the coming years.
“Reclamation is vital to any socially and environmentally responsible gravel enterprise. Brown Pit, in particular, hasn’t been in use since the 1960s, and the area surrounding it has been slowly deteriorating. This work will help restore both pits, and return their environments to pristine farmland," said Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman.