When will construction activity for the facilities upgrades start?

It is planned that land clearing will begin in late June or early July. The clearing will include the areas for the new biathlon range/stadium, the enlarged areas for the cross country stadium, as well as the area of the new parking area (to the west of the upper parking lot, behind the machine shed). The construction activity will likely progress through to mid-October such that normal ski operations can resume next ski season.

Will parking be expanded at Otway?

Yes. As part of the membership information sessions in late April, various options regarding parking expansion opportunities were presented for comment and feedback. The outcome of the feedback from these sessions was to place a high priority on expanding parking both in the existing parking lots, as well as a multi-stage plan for parking expansion. As such, the focus for the existing lower parking lot will be to take opportunities to expand parking as the facilities upgrades take place and then to focus on landscaping for visual aesthetics. With regards to the upper parking lot, the options that were supported were to create a double lane entrance to the upper parking lot as well as moving some of the small structures to improve parking efficiency. Two additional areas were presented as options for parking lot expansion (to the west of the upper parking lot, behind the machine shed). The recommendations from the membership info sessions was to develop the one area (immediately behind the machine shed) as part of the current facilities upgrades, and then to save the expansion of the second area for future expansion phases. This new parking area has been designed with a buffer of trees between it and the main trails to maintain the visual aesthetics from the trail coming from the existing parking lot.

Will Otway be accessible during the construction (i.e. for biking, running, etc)?

Yes, users will be able to access Otway during the construction period. If there is a need, the upper parking lot will be opened if construction activity periodically requires use of the majority of the lower parking lot.