June Project Update

Hello Quadra and Cortes Island community members,

I’m Jeffrey Li, the Project Manager overseeing the replacement of your ferry terminals at Heriot Bay and Whaletown. I hope you’re all doing well.

We recognize how unique and resilient these communities are, and how vital the ferry is to your livelihood and connection to each other. That is why our top priority is to deliver safe, reliable long-term ferry service between Quadra and Cortes Islands - while minimizing the impacts on your daily lives.

If you haven’t already heard or seen, I’m excited to share that on-site construction is now underway at both terminals as of late May. After years of planning and gathering input from the community, our teams are thrilled to be on the ground and bringing these upgrades to life.

We’re committed to completing this work safely and efficiently, with as little disruption to ferry users as possible.

Each month we will bring you updates on the progress and highlights of the project and what we are looking ahead to. In this first monthly update, I’d like to share some highlights from the Heriot Bay terminal. Over the past three weeks, the team has been making excellent progress on building a temporary trestle. This structure will allow us to keep the ferry running while we remove the old trestle and construct a new one. We expect to start using the temporary trestle for ferry traffic by mid-July. What does this mean for you? You’ll notice a slightly different approach to the berth, but ferry sailings will continue as scheduled.

At Whaletown, work has also begun. Our crews are currently installing foundation piles that will support the future berth structure. This phase will continue into early August, after which the team will join their colleagues at Heriot Bay to continue work there.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has already reached out or participated in past community events. Your input has helped shape the project to reduce its impact as much as possible and contributed to a strong start on site.

You’ll continue to hear from us through service notices, mail-outs, social media, sign boards, and this monthly column where you’ll hear from a different member of our projects team.

You can also visit our project webpage at: bcferriesprojects.ca/heriot-bay-whaletown-tp

Thanks for reading,

Jeffrey Li
Project Manager
BC Ferries