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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The construction of the Rotary Park boardwalk is a somewhat linear project, joked project manager Peter Vician.

"Basically, you've got to do it 16 feet at a time."

Vician was out working on the boardwalk, located at the Willow Flats area, last weekend - after a spring and summer time hiatus. From about May to July the club did little on the boardwalk because construction is forbidden during certain times where it could be deemed disruptive to wildlife, said Vician.

The expected completion date for the boardwalk is next September.

While Vician admitted that the city - which partnered with the Rotary Club for the project - has expressed concerns with the project's pace, he added that the club has identified the park as a project "we keep adding to."

Not to mention, said Vician, as a volunteer group, the club wasn't exactly given a contract deadline.

"We're puttering along as we normally do," he laughed.

The Rotary Club signed onto the project in 2004 to recognize the centennial year of Rotary. In addition to the boardwalk, the club has done landscaping and put up pavilions and a monument in the park.

"We went to the city looking for a partnership project looking to identify a piece of land we could develop together," said Vician.

It's not the first time they've done a project like this with the city, added Vician, noting the club's help with the Range Lake Trail project about 10 years ago, which he also headed.

The boardwalk will be 500 feet long and end in a lookout point.

"The concept was really to provide access to sort of a visual scene of Yellowknife Bay and some of the wet land areas, " said Vician.

There has been some talk about extending the boardwalk so that it loops but Vician said that would not be up to Rotary.

"Our project right now is just to take it out to the point. That's as far as we'll take it, the city would have to comment if they want it to go any further," Vician said.

"There has been some comment from the community that they wouldn't mind seeing it loop back in to Lundquist Drive, we just haven't gone that far into planning," said Grant White, director of community services.

"The idea is it takes people along a restricted pathway ... and it keeps people on the boardwalk rather than them going all over the nature preserve area," he added.