Sidewalk, boulevard collapse on Johnson St.
A section of Johnson Street sidewalk and boulevard adjacent to a construction site collapsed as a water main burst in the late morning Friday.
No one was injured, but Johnson near Cook Street was closed to traffic Friday afternoon and evening while crews made repairs. A tree and a utility pole were caught up in the collapse.
“I would say that about 25 or 30 metres of sidewalk and boulevard and curb and gutter sunk 2 1⁄2 to three metres into the site below the level of the roadway,” said Brad Dellebuur, Victoria’s assistant director of transportation.
It is too early to say what happened first — the water main break or the sidewalk and boulevard sinking, he said. It was also uncertain whether the open construction pit was a factor, Dellebuur said.
“We’ve got a geotechnical engineer looking at it right now and we won’t know for a while what the actual cause of it was,” he said.
Crews were busy Friday afternoon attempting to restore water that had been cut off to residents and about six businesses in the 1100-block of Johnson between Cook and Chambers Street as well as making the area safe.
“Crews are working to restore water service to those properties right now. Geotechnical engineers are on site making sure that the bank is stable and the site is safe and secure.”
Dellebuur said he didn’t know how long the investigation would take or when at least one lane of the road might be reopened.
“Hydro’s got to get in to support that pole that sunk into the excavation and make sure that their service remains intact.
“Once they do that, we’re going to secure the outer perimeter of the site. That will likely extend out into the road a bit, and based on what the final analysis is by the geotechnical engineer, we’ll know whether we can open it up to one lane of traffic or not,” he said.
The construction site, where The Wade condominium project is being built, wasn’t active during the incident.
Last week, a three-storey apartment building near Oak Bay Avenue and Fort Street had to be briefly evacuated after a 12-metre-long section of rock retaining wall collapsed, burying a bus stop with debris.
The rock wall that collapsed, along an apartment-building property, was about two metres high and adjacent to the sidewalk on the south side of Oak Bay Avenue, near the intersection with Fort Street and Pandora Avenue.
Geotechnical analysis later determined residents could safely return to the apartment building and that debris could be safely removed from the sidewalk and street. Previously, it was thought that the debris could be propping up the remaining bank of earth.
The south-side sidewalk near the fallen wall remains closed while geotechnical assessments continue.