Two families remain under evacuation order at the Green Acres Mobile Home Park in Williams Lake.
At the end of September, the city declared a local state of emergency when it was discovered land slippage near Frizzi Road had caused a break in an exposed sanitary sewer main and issued an evacuation order for six properties.
Residents living in four of the properties were allowed to return home on Saturday, Oct. 23.
READ MORE: Evacuation order partially lifted at Green Acres Mobile Home Park in Williams Lake
Since then contractors have drilled in all the pipes and will begin doing all the tie-ins which will take three or four weeks, said Rob Warnock, city director of municipal services.
“We are still pumping over a manhole because we had the break in the pipe so we couldn’t have it going over the hill,” Warnock said. “We put two plugs in, we wait until the one manhole fills up and then we pump it down 500 metres down the road, overland and then into a manhole in the Green Acres trailer park.
The two evacuated families will be looked after by the city’s emergency operations centre for another five weeks.
During the regular council meeting Tuesday, Nov. 2, Gary Muraca, chief administrative officer for the city, said the geotechnical engineer who did an inspection said those two properties had to have a 15-metre set back from the top of the slope.
“Why these two trailers cannot have people move back in is because 15 metres from the top of the slope goes halfway through these trailers,” Muraca said. “They don’t have to be moved off the site possibly, but they have to be moved forward to get out of that danger zone.”
Warnock said the cost of moving the trailers for the owners could be in the thousands of dollars and will depend on who does the work.
“Number three trailer has to come ahead eight metres and number four has to come ahead five metres,” he said. “It is expensive because all the services have to be moved, everything has got to be levelled again, and as long as the additions are not rotten they can be put back on.”
The river valley remains closed for recreation until further notice.
Last week the city awarded the contract to replace 14 bridges in the river valley as part of the flood remediation project to Quality Excavation Ltd. for $2,115,872.50. Eighty per cent of the project is being funded through the province’s disaster financial assistance program.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Williams Lake river valley 2020 flood repairs continue
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