Road rerouted around ancient site

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Evidence of an old Katzie First Nation village has forced TransLink, the provincial Crown corporation that manages transportation in the Lower Mainland, to reroute a section of a road it is building to service a new bridge across the Fraser River.

Archeologists stumbled on the site located near 203 Street in Maple Ridge while conducting an environmental impact assessment.

The Fraser River Crossing (FRC) bridge, expected to be completed in 2007, will be built near the Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge border, and will impinge on Katzie First Nation land. The Abernethy Connector is a new road being built at the same time, to provide alternate access to the bridge. That means three kilometres of asphalt will one day cut a swath through mostly Maple Ridge agricultural land.

The archeological survey, which has since been submitted to the provincial environmental assessment office for approval before TransLink can put the $600 million FRC project out to tender, states the site is considered to have "high scientific potential to provide information related to the study of Aboriginal lifestyle in a village setting."

According to the report, "(Field) tests yielded a considerable variety of information in the form of raw materials, tool types, ornamentation ... indicating that an archeological investigation of the site would provide a considerable amount and range of information on Aboriginal habitation."

TransLink and the Katzie First Nation were tight-lipped about releasing the exact location of the site, to prevent any treasure hunters from pilfering artifacts having historical and cultural value to the First Nation.

Fred Cummings, project director for the FRC project, said the revised alignment for the Abernethy Connector road will see the road shift to the south as it crosses 203 Street. Once past 203rd and clear of the archeological find, the two-lane road will revert back to its originally planned course.

Cummings added that in order to avoid the Aboriginal site, two privately owned properties not initially affected by the Abernethy Connector now will be affected.

Katzie spokeswoman Debbie Miller said the First Nation is pleased that TransLink has decided to avoid the site.

"We warned them that wherever they went they would likely run into (historical) sites," Miller said. "It's heritage. It's not just our heritage, but heritage that could be an asset to all of B.C."

Miller said TransLink is doing a decent job of mitigating the effects that the FRC project is having on Katzie traditional lands, but months of foot-dragging by the District of Maple Ridge over approval of the Abernethy portion has left the band short of time to conduct its own land use and occupancy studies.

Maple Ridge politicians originally voted not to give TransLink the needed approval to build the Abernethy Connector. However, through a motion floated by Coun. Craig Speirs, the matter was again brought before council and passed just hours before a TransLink-imposed deadline in early October.

Miller said the First Nation lost more than two months' worth of workdays to perform their own surveys, and time is tight if they want to finish their studies by the March deadline.

"The Abernethy Connector did not go well, and even now with their timeliness to get everything done we are expected to get a large amount of work done without the human resources that TransLink has," she said.