From early morning to late afternoon, Monday to Friday, the work repairing a massive slope failure on Essa Township's Line 5 marches on.
A month into the reconstruction, being done with township resources to reduce the cost, the site is slowly starting to take shape to return — to what it was before a torrential rainstorm washed away about 70 metres of the thoroughfare.
Two massive excavators, one on each side of the small creek that runs 12 to 15 metres below the road’s surface, are in constant motion — scooping, clearing and moving thousands of cubic metres of dirt in an effort to create a suitable base upon which they can rebuild the slope.
It’s tedious work, but township officials hope it will be completed before the end of September.
“We are targeting Sept. 20 for completion, weather permitting,” said Michael Mikael, chief administrative officer for Essa Township. “Rain always delays construction, especially for road work.”
According to township officials, an early April rainstorm that lasted almost 24 hours caused the slope failure a couple of kilometres south of County Road 90, west of Angus.
Officials said the initial failure was about 50 metres in length. It was compounded by another landslide that extended the damage an additional 20 metres.
As a result of the slope failure, a 90-metre culvert that conveyed the small creek under the road was also damaged. While it was initially thought that the culvert could be reused, it had to be replaced when officials discovered it sustained heavier-than-expected damage.
“This is the largest slope failure the township has ever experienced,” Mikael said. “(A) total volume of 55,000 cubic metres has been removed from the site and a full 100-metre (corrugated steel pipe) culvert is being installed to replace the damaged culvert.”
Mikael said the repair will require the township to bring in more than 60,000 cubic metres of engineered fill to be placed in layers to stabilize the proposed embankment.
“We have to remove/place over 120,000 cubic metres of dirt and install a cofferdam (an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out or drained) for dewatering,” Mikael said.
“Besides this, we will be installing a new drainage system and realigning the road profile to be paved," the CAO added.
According to Mikael, the township had to wait four weeks for the culvert to be built. It was delivered in eight sections due to its size.
“We are in the process of installing the new culvert now before we start back-filling with engineered fill,” Mikael said. “We are 60 per cent of having the project completed.”
Mikael said a project of this size, with limited land to access the collapsed slope, usually takes several months to complete.
The repair, using township resources and staff, will cost the municipality between $330,000 and $450,000. If the township had opted to use third-party contractors, it would have cost an additional $300,000, township officials have said.
