Work on the Stoney Creek rehabilitation project may be nearing an end, but it hasn’t come without at least one final punch.
On Saturday, crews opened up the culvert to use it for the first time, but a bypass pump failure forced water to topple over the bank and run down Ash Grove Crescent into a housing complex. The water flooded at least one garage.
While pictures from residents sent to the NOW show at least shin-deep water in Ridgemoor Place, city officials downplayed the extent of the flooding.
James Lota, an assistant engineering director with the City of Burnaby, explained crews opened the culvert for the first time, which went according to plan.
However, he said the flooding came once they took the bypass pumps offline and one of the hoses failed. Lota said the water topped the banks running into a garage, but noted crews were onsite right away to clean up the water.
“There wasn’t that much flooding,” he told the NOW. “As far as I understand, there wasn’t any damage to any property other than their garages getting some water in it.”
Lota also suggested the situation looked more spectacular than it was because of the redesign of the culvert. He said the city redesigned the culvert and added an “energy dissipation block” or a concrete wall that breaks up the water so it can run in a gentler manner.
The block is intended to stop the erosion of the tributary wall, which was the purpose of the work in the first place.
“It looks spectacular, but that’s what we expected it to do,” Lota said.
Saturday’s flooding wasn’t the first incident for the project.
Heavy rains last month forced sediment into a tributary after a bypass pump failed and also washed out a section along Kinder Morgan’s pipeline on Gaglardi Way, leaving it exposed.
The sediment issues have kept the local streamkeepers worried about the damage to the local fish habitat along the salmon-bearing stream.
John Templeton, chair of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, said he’s lost confidence in the contractor doing the work and questioned what he suggested was a lack of communication between his group and the city.
“This thing has just gone beyond what it should have went,” he said.
Templeton also continued to question the timing of the work on the project, arguing it should have been done earlier in the year before the rainy season in the fall. He said his group notified the city last November that there was a serious problem with the integrity of the Gaglardi culvert.
While the city continues to assess the damage to the fish in the creek, Templeton said all the salmon are gone and after Saturday’s event, the spawning beds are covered with granite and sand.
Even city officials acknowledged the difficulties with the project. Lota described the project as “challenging” but argued the city had no choice but to carry out the work now fearing conditions with the creek would get worse over the winter.
“Given the urgency of the project and the weather conditions, it wasn’t ideal, but I think we’re handling it the best we can,” he said.
Lota indicated the project is nearly complete with some restoration work like the replanting of grass and shrubs left to finish.
