Photo: CKRW file.
With pressure mounting from Yukoners, the City of Whitehorse has hired a local contractor to push part of the escarpment over
WHITEHORSE – With pressure mounting from Yukoners, the City of Whitehorse has hired a local contractor to push part of the escarpment over.
The City of Whitehorse has spent $175,000 to push around 6,000 cubic metres of earth down the escarpment and then sent away, in an effort to be one step ahead of the unstable slope.
The city has hired Sidhu Trucking to do the dirty work which is set to begin on May 2, 2023, and last up to 2 weeks.
This is the second year in a row that Whitehorse has had to block Robert Service Way, one of the main thoroughfares into the downtown area, because of a landslide that caused escarpment debris to flow across the road.
The city has already had two major slides this spring, and more slides are anticipated in the coming weeks as the weather warms and melting snow further saturated the already unstable ground.
Excavator crews will work from the top of the escarpment and push unstable dirt down the cliff and send it away, which is a temporary solution according to Mayor Laura Cabott.
According to Taylor Eshpeter, the city’s manager of engineering services, the project should take around two weeks. In the meanwhile, Robert Service Way will remain closed.
According to Eshpeter, the objective is to eliminate the unstable material in a more “controlled” manner. No explosives will be used, and it is unlikely that the activity would cause more debris to wind up on the road. Heavy equipment will be used to complete everything.
Yukoners that usually take Robert Service Way on their way to work, school, or more can expect the main road to continue to be closed.
