[Cre47]

Yep the new pipe will have to wait for a good week or perhaps two as it is done in Toronto.

New pipe for Highway 174 sinkhole should arrive next week, city says


By Neco Cockburn, Ottawa Citizen September 6, 2012 5:19 PM

If you’re heading east on Montreal Road these days, you’re not going anywhere very fast. The afternoon commute was a nightmare for these drivers as they took the detour around the Highway 174 sinkhole.

OTTAWA — A new pipe needed to fix a sinkhole that swallowed a car and closed the eastbound lanes of Highway 174 is being manufactured in Toronto and should arrive next week, the city said Thursday.

There are no firm timelines, but once the pipe arrives, it’s expected to take “several days” to fix the failed storm sewer that’s to blame for the sinkhole at the Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard off-ramp, city officials have said.

It’s not easy to get a massive 3.6-metre-diameter pipe to replace the one that collapsed and caused the sinkhole shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, staff said this week.

Because of that, traffic tie-ups are likely to continue for the many commuters who use the highway each day. Ottawa police on Thursday warned drivers to continue to expect delays on the city’s east side, especially during the afternoon rush hour.

“We are continuing to work with the city to manage the traffic flow but traffic delays will continue throughout the area until Highway 174 is reopened,” Supt. Jill Skinner stated in a press release.

Police asked drivers to use other routes, stay off the Transitway that’s reserved for buses and emergency vehicles, and budget extra driving time into their plans, noting that thousands of vehicles have been diverted from the highway and onto other roads.

The highway’s eastbound lanes have been closed to traffic at Montreal Road following the incident Tuesday that saw Juan Pedro Unger’s 2009 Hyundai Accent swallowed by the sinkhole.

Unger saw a black patch on the road that he was unable to avoid. He escaped with very minor injuries.

The highway’s westbound lanes remain open, after the portion of pipe under them was inspected by camera. That pipe is newer and in good condition, the city’s manager of asset management, Alain Gonthier, told council’s transportation committee during a briefing Wednesday morning.

The section under the westbound lanes was installed in 1975, while the piece of pipe that failed under the eastbound lanes was at least 50 years old and was last renewed in 1975, he said.

The older section was inspected in the summer of 2011 and identified as in need of a $1.5-million relining, but there was no indication that it was at risk of “imminent” collapse, said Gonthier. Contractors were at the scene cleaning out the pipe earlier on Tuesday to prepare it for the work, but Gonthier said it’s not believed at this point that anything they did led to the collapse.

“We’re really talking about a coincidence,” he told the committee.

Once the new pipe is obtained, staff would have a better idea of how long the repairs will take, Gonthier said. It’s also too early to determine what it will cost to fix the problem, he told reporters.

Workers on Wednesday secured the damaged area and pumped water away in order to prevent any uncontrolled sinking during excavation work.

Unger’s car remained inside the hole but has been carried further downstream to the north, Gonthier said Wednesday.

Councillors raised concerns about the state of other city pipes, saying residents had emailed them and were particularly nervous about driving over the highway’s westbound lanes.

“It does kind of make you think if it can happen there it can happen anywhere,” said Councillor Diane Deans, who asked Gonthier about the state of the city’s infrastructure and whether its assessment procedure needed to be reviewed.

The city has a lot of infrastructure that it inspects and prioritizes for repairs or replacements based on various risks, Gonthier said, but “unfortunately these situations do happen.

“The city was proactive in this case, we had the assessments done, the work was already being planned, and it is very much an unfortunate situation,” he said. “Overall, the city’s assets are in good condition, they’re safe, and we continue to look after them.”

ncockburn@ottawacitizen.com

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