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Landslide repairs to cost $1M-plus

The cost to repair damages from by a slide in the river valley in April will be more than a million dollars.

The cost to repair a process line from the energy plant and a storm water line that were damaged by a slide in the river valley in April will be more than a million dollars, says the city’s acting chief administrative officer.

Reporting to city council during a special committee of the whole meeting Aug. 7, Geoff Goodall explained the city will cover the cost of the process line, using surplus funds from the sewer budget, and the project should not cause any financial stress. However, the specific costs of the process line have not been determined.

Prior to the slide in April, the plan for replacing the process and storm water lines was slated for Phase 5 of a five-phase replacement project. However, the slide caused the city to switch priorities and do Phase 5 before completing Phase 3.

“The one that does have some significant financial implications is the storm water project,” Goodall says. “We have been approved to use Phase 3 funding for Phase 5.”

Phase 3 had a budget of $771,000, which is covered 100 per cent by a grant. Phase 5, however, will cost around $1.1 million, according to the engineers.

“The concern is what kind of constraints this is going to put on council in the future. It would appear that this project easily qualifies for community works funding,” Goodall explained. An additional $350,000 is available in unallocated funds, which means the city may not have to dip into general revenue surpluses to complete the project.

“We will know more once the engineering design is completed,” Goodall said.

Due to the nature of the project, it will be broken down into two stages — one for the process line and one for the storm water line.

Goodall told council there have already been significant challenges with the process line.

The piece that was under the river was plugged with sand and debris when the failure occurred, and initially the city was worried the cost of replacing it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“In the old days you could just dig right through the river. You can’t do that anymore; you have to auger 10 metres below the river bed. We have since cleaned the old pipe and we’re preparing to do the pressure test on it to make sure that it’s competent. We’re hopeful that it is and we can use it.”

There are some challenges augering from the landfill and coming down to the river. Geo-technical drilling is taking place to make sure the augering can be done.

The project is still on track and the city is hoping to have it completed by the end of November, Goodall noted.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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