Claremont: Focus on the long game

Living with a unique natural feature like the Niagara Escarpment has always been a mixed blessing.

For all of its compelling vistas and natural beauty, our Mountain brings its own set of challenges. And for the most part, we know them all too well. It can be treacherous in winter. A local mechanic once imparted that his Mountain customers need brake jobs more often than those in the lower city. Cycling down is a breeze, cycling up not so much.

But the escarpment is a defining characteristic of our city, along with our waterfront. And these days, it, and by extension us, are dealing with a whole new threat — climate change. As all good Hamiltonians know, the Mountain is made of relatively soft rock. Wind, weather and especially water can alter it. Erosion that was a slow process is becoming faster with more traumatic weather.

All this is salient to any discussion about the latest round of ongoing problems with the Claremont Access. As any driver knows already, downbound traffic is being diverted to the Jolley Cut (Upper Wellington access). The culprit is a bulging retaining wall on the Claremont, raising fears of falling rock and landslides that could pose a threat to life and property.

It’s not a new problem. Erosion and rockfall issues have plagued other Mountain accesses episodically, but the Claremont has been a special problem for years, including in 2012 when a significant landslide shut down the road. In response, the city shut down the inside lane and put up stronger fencing to protect motorists.

The latest closure has the city, staff and consultants looking at various options, most intended to get the downbound lanes open as quickly as possible. Given the inconvenience to drivers, that’s understandable.

But what we really need here is a permanent, or at least longterm, fix. That may not be possible until this seemingly endless winter finally breathes its last, but it ought to be the governing philosophy. Portions of the retaining wall were scheduled to be removed this summer anyway. It doesn’t make much sense to put a lot of money and resources into a temporary fix sooner.

The Claremont may be the poster child, but it’s not alone. We need discussion and debate around the best ways to prepare for the future and its impact on the escarpment.

Its outer dolostone shell may be tougher, but the shale underneath is putty in the hands of water and ice. One of the big culprits — freeze/thaw cycles. And thanks to climate change, what do we have more and more of? Freezing and thawing. You don’t need a geology degree to see where this is going.

So sure, get some downbound capacity reopened. But focus on a fix that will last decades, not years. It needn’t be a resumption of the status quo. Arguably, the Claremont was overbuilt to begin with, so something smaller might be more appropriate for the times. Back in 2012 there were dire predictions about what the loss of the inside lane would bring, but who really notices now?

Climate change is here, all around us. This is just one manifestation of its impact.