In a bid to try and reduce theft and vandalism, the City of Kamloops will be installing aluminum wires along the Xget’tem’ trail that connects Sahali and downtown at a cost of $40,000.

The City’s Trades Supervisor, Adam Simpson, says it comes after numerous instances where the existing copper wires were stolen leading to increased repair costs and public safety concerns.

“Wires are stolen from lightning infrastructure by vandalizing the access cover and then each separate length of copper conductor is pulled from the underground infrastructure that connects the poles,” Simpson said at a Civic Operations Committee meeting.

“In some instances, the pole is knocked over to expose the wiring in the base.”

A number of measures to mitigate the theft of copper wires including the use of tamper proof hardware, securing access panels with extra fasteners, or installing straps or bands on access panels have all failed, Simpson said.

“Recent vandalism and thefts have included attempts to bypass our security hardware altogether,” he added. “The trades team considered welding the access panels in place, but that presents a safety concern in the event of an emergency.”

Simpson says these thefts have increased since June of this year, adding that since August of last year, it has cost the city $30,000 to repair the damage.

“There have been other areas that have changed over to aluminum wiring with a lot of success. The Ministry of Transportation with highways, they’ve done a lot of that as they have also experienced a lot of theft,” he said.

“I think we will experience, we’ll call it checking, and I think it is fairly easy to recognize aluminum versus copper so we’re hoping that it won’t happen forever.”

Other options considered by staff included removing all of the lights and installing signs that the trail would only be open during daylight hours, installing new solar lights, or leaving things as is and repairing the damage as and when it occurred.

Each option had a different price estimate. Removing lights and adding signs could have cost anywhere from $10,000 to $150,000, while leaving things as is could cost between $60,000 to $80,000 a year. Installing new solar lights was the most expensive option, with estimates pegged between $750,000 and $1-million.

“After evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each option, the Civic Operations Department has decided to install aluminum wiring along the trail,” Simpson said.

“We expect vandalism may still occur but this decreases the recycle value of the wiring and hopefully it would discourage future thefts.”