Road probably shut for days while city estimates risk after a landslide

Key takeaways: 

• The city urges citizens to work from home and has rerouted traffic.
• The landslide that took place on the cliff in Whitehorse on April 30. 
• Whitehorse Mayor Laura Cabott stated the road, Robert Service Way, will ‘probably be shut for several days.’

According to the mayor, one of the two main access routes into downtown Whitehorse will be shut for at least several days after a landslide on the weekend sent a torrent of dirt, stones, and trees across the road onto the famous pedestrian trail alongside it.

Mayor Laura Cabott said the city is considering the place where it occurred. The landslide caused the shutdown of Robert Service Way from the roundabout to Miles Canyon Road and the Millennium and Airport Trails.

“What we know at the moment is that the space around the slide stays unsafe. It is deemed high risk and an active site,” she told on Monday morning, adding teams were not yet able to go in and clear the debris from the place.

“It’s just not secure for anyone to go in there to move that,” she stated.

Two landslides

About 3 p.m. on Saturday, mud, stones, and trees came flying down the vertical slope of the escarpment. 

Also read: Fuel spill into Hudson Bay near Rankin Inlet was never cleaned up

Witnesses say there were two slides — a small one followed by a much bigger one.

The debris washed over Robert Service Way and the Millennium Trail and took out a guard rail.

While no one was hurt, the slide just missed some vehicles and people walking and biking along the popular trail.

Robert Service Way is the primary way into downtown for people from the south.

Downtown is still available on its north end via Two Mile Hill. Still, city officials requested people to work from home on Monday or consider carpooling, taking transit, or utilizing active transportation like cycling.

Source – cbc.ca