Trans Mountain will be spending about $170,000 to build a new dog park in Kamloops.

The new park will be in Brock; construction will start this month and the park is expected to be open this spring.

City of Kamloops civic operations director Jen Fretz explains why Trans Mountain is doing the project.

“It’s our understanding that the Ord Road dog park will be impacted by the construction. So in order to make sure there’s no impact, or very little impact to residents, Trans Mountain has agreed to finance the construction of a new dog park. So the Ord Road dog park when it’s closed – sometime in and around March – will be replaced by a dog park on Aviation Way.”

Fretz says the Ord Road dog park will be rehabilitated and reopened when the Trans Mountain pipeline project is finished, meaning that long-term, the city will have two dog parks in that area of Brock near the Kamloops Airport. She says Trans Mountain will be covering the costs to reopen the park.

And Fretz points out the investment in a dog park is separate from Trans Mountain’s Community Benefits Agreement signed with the City of Kamloops in 2015, which is a one-time payout of $700,000.

The Trans Mountain expansion project is expected to start in Kamloops in the spring or summer of this year.