Whitehorse city crew aims $2.3 million for landslides cleanup, restoration, and precautions

Key takeaways: 

• The City council anticipated voting on bids next week.
• The City council requested $2.3 million in the capital budget to pay for the expenses associated with this and other little landslides that took place this summer. 
• Staff also requested $850,000 to start engineering designs to repair a water line and a sewer line. 

Whitehorse city staff have requested the council to back $3.15 million in the capital budget to pay for expenses associated with the recent landslides and to begin engineering designs to restore a water line and a sewer line.

Staff requested $2.3 million to cover the prices associated with the landslides.

So far, the city has paid $1.6 million on creating a protective ridge on Robert Service Way, reviews, engineering, and safety, but more bills are predicted for the cleanup, restoration, and precautions.

Because the landslides were a crisis, the city crew was allowed to spend first and get council acceptance later, which is why the staff is now pursuing the budget amendment.

Mayor Laura Cabott questioned if units from other sources were seeking funding.

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Interim city manager Jeff O’Farrell told the city is in talks with the Yukon government regarding “various extraordinary expenses that the city of Whitehorse incurred this spring, mainly linked to the cliff, but also somewhat related to water management.”

He said it’s soon to tell whether the talks will lead to a budget from the territorial government.

Deterioration in the water line

City staff also demanded an extra $500,000 to repair a corroded quarter of the Cross Town Water Main and $350,000 to restore a gap in a sewer line located along the Tahkini sanitary trunk line just east of the Pepsi Softball Centre.

Staff found the corrosion in the water after it had found and fixed two “significant leaks,” also induced by erosion, last May.

Source – CBC News