Yesterday, city engineers conducting work in preparation for a culvert replacement along a section of Willow Cale Road noticed an alarming amount of erosion by the west edge of the pavement. The affected area is close to the Haggith Creek crossing, about 1.6km from the intersection of Penn Road and Milwaukee Way.
Manager of Engineering and Public works Dave Dyer says the erosion appears to be ongoing.
“We have noticed, as trucks are going over, there’s a ravelling of the slope. So gravels are starting to shimmy down the slope. So this is concerning that the loading of the vehicles and the speed of the vehicles are causing it to continue to deteriorate.”
Dyer says city crews are taking immediate action.
“Today, we’re going to reduce the speed through that section to 30km per hour and also put some delineators on that side of the road to keep vehicles over. But on Monday, the plan is to move barriers along that section so that there’s only one lane of traffic.”
City engineers will be monitoring the slope to ensure the erosion stops. Dyer says that if these measures fail to halt the erosion, the road will need to be closed. That will mean a detour of nearly 8km along the Cariboo Highway for local traffic.
Anyone planning to use the road in the near future is asked to be cautious. Single lane alternating traffic flow will take effect as of Monday morning.
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