Construction to expand a Barrie beach will be getting underway next week.
Johnson’s Beach in Barrie’s east end will be receiving a facelift, with construction starting Oct. 5. The project is slated to be completed by late-November.
“The purpose of doing this work is to make the beach bigger by removing quite a bit of rock on the beach,” said Coun. Clare Riepma, whose ward includes the beach area.
“This project will be removing a lot of that rock and restoring the beach to what it was before,” he said.
Work to be done on the beach includes removing the rock overflow channel located above the existing box culvert to be replaced with beach sand, installing a new overflow channel, maintaining a small area of rocks at the end of the box culvert at the shore to prevent erosion, and installing a handrail at the end of the box culvert.
According to Riepma, there was no opposition to the project presented at the public meeting.
“We didn’t hear any concerns about the proposal,” he said.
The entire project cost was $2.2 million, but includes work already completed. This portion of the project is planned to cost approximately $175,000.
Parts of the beach will be closed for the duration of the construction period, however Johnson Street and access to the Barrie Yacht Club will remain open.
“I think people will be really happy when it’s all done. We’re going to get quite a bit more beach,” said Riepma.
