At the end of Council’s Public Works Committee meeting on Monday, staff and councillors had a 30-minute discussion of what work has been done on the Claremont Access escarpment face, and how they will budget for the work.
City staff say they will be removing 55-metres of the retaining wall from the 2012 collapse location and the most recent wall failure on the eastern edge of the wall near the Jolley Cut.
They’ll be installing fencing at the bottom of escarpment as a traffic protection feature in addition of the current concrete barriers blocking the closed downbound lane.
This is planned to be completed in the next few weeks to see the reopening of downbound lanes, hopefully in late February.
The expected cost of the emergency work to date is $1.1-million, and the cost will rise as the upcoming work starts. The estimate is this will add $750,000 to the cost.
There is hope that the City’s remaining minimal reserves can fund the shoring up of the escarpment face.
Discussion continued about various engineering methods being considered for containing the escarpment face. A report on these opinions will be forthcoming in the future.
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