Breaching the Westcan Causeway in Cowichan Bay

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The overall goal of the project aims at breaching the man-made causeway and building a bridge across the breach. The bridge is being built at a site where there used to be a trestle bridge supporting the railroad leading to the Westcan Terminal. The trestle bridge had been removed in the 1960’s and the gap closed by infilling. The in-filling and creation of a solid road connecting the Cowichan Bay Road with the Westcan dock effectively cut the estuary into two sections after the removal of the former trestle bridge. Furthermore, the dyke blocked off the flow of the main stem of the Cowichan River South Fork which used to drain into the southern section of the estuary when the trestle bridge was still in place, preventing proper estuarine ecosystem functioning and salmon smolt from accessing prime habitat located to the south of the Westcan Terminal.