View / Vancouver sinkhole

[VicHockeyFan]

City sinks $3 million into fixing 'intersuction'
Businesses welcome plan to fix sinking road, including $300,000 'beautification' of the area
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Font: * * * * Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, March 02, 2007
It's more of an intersuction than an intersection.

For more than two decades, the roadway at Vancouver and View streets has been sinking into the marshland it was built on.

Yesterday, Victoria city council decided to sink $3 million into repairing the asphalt at the downtown intersection.

Not a moment too soon.

"It is right to the point where it is dangerous for bicycles and scooters," said Robert Randall, president of the Downtown Residents Association. "It is a metre down in some places."

The majority of the $3 million will be spent on the road, excavating fill, replacing it in the area and redirecting surface water from catch basins into the peat layer under the roadway. The decomposing peat layer is cited as one cause of the sinking.

The plan, to be presented at a future public meeting, also calls for $300,000 worth of "beautification" in the area that would include cluster lights, street furniture and other decorative elements. Half of that cost is to be shared with business and residents if they agree.

Garry Gilchrist, the manager at Aral Construction, which leases space in the nearby Harris Green plaza, said the plan is welcome, although area businesses will not be happy about the traffic disruptions.

Construction could start in June and end in December.

Gilchrist said he is aware of some of the problematic soil conditions because his company built the building leased by Frontrunners Footwear on the northwest corner of the intersection. That building sits on 46-metre piles, some of the longest in the city, he said.

Historic records show a small creek went through the area.

Peter Sparanese, the city's deputy director of engineering, said plans to use light, cellular concrete will shorten the need for traffic disruptions and only parts of the intersection will be closed at a time.

Crews will also work to protect as many as possible of the Lindsay plum trees, horse chestnuts and Norway maples lining the streets, said Sparanese.

[VicHockeyFan]

Randall must get a phone-call a day from reporters these days.

[Rob Randall]

I haven't heard from the Victoria News for a few months.

The Times Colonist ran a good photo that shows the extent of the sinkage:

edit

My main concern is whether future construction will draw water from the bog faster than nature can replace it. The Regents Park tower's underground parkade contains a sump pump that pulls water out of the ground. I assume London Drugs' parkade has a pump, too. Eventually, the two undeveloped lot at the intersection will have underground parking, too.

I was told that there are three causes of the sinking:

1)Decomposing peat
2)Ground water runs away along utility pipes
3)Ground water pumped out by neighbouring buildings

[Icebergalley]

Can you get the engineer's or hydrological consultants reports and post them?

[Holden West]

Slumping street fix could hurt business, owner fears

By Keith Vass
News staff

Sep 07 2007

After watching the road in front of his store slowly sink over the last seven years, Frontrunners owner Rob Reid is ready to see the corner of View and Vancouver fixed.

He’s just not sure what it will mean for his business.

“As a retailer, we’re at the mercy of the city, and it’s a unique geographical problem the city has to face with regards to the road,” said Reid.

Frontrunners front door opens onto the corner, which was built on a peat bog and has sunk half a metre into the ground, creating a deep dip in the pavement and damaging underground infrastructure.

City council recently gave the green light for a much-anticipated repair and beautification project to begin, which is now budgeted at just over $4 million.

The cost went up from $3 million this spring after a video inspection of pipes running beneath the intersection revealed more damage than previously thought.

City staff were to meet with the contractor chosen for the work, UMA from Vancouver, to set a start date for the work yesterday after press time. The work should start within the next two weeks, and could take between six to eight months to complete.

“What we’ve been told is that this should really do the trick,” said Hector Furtado, manager of streets for the city.

The work will involve replacing pipes and storm drains, refilling the peat with water, and laying a base of a new, lightweight concrete that floats underneath the road.

Refilling the peat with water is needed to prevent further subsidence.

“There were traces of methane, which led us to believe there were actually two events here, [the peat] was compressing and decaying,” said Furtado.

The new storm drains will be perforated to let water reach the peat after a rain.

The project also includes a $300,000 in beautification work. The money will go towards cluster lights, street furniture and trees.

“I think the beautification will be a nice thing, it’s just a question of whether it gets maintained,” Reid said.

[Rob Randall]

They started cutting down the cherry (plum?) trees on View Street this afternoon. The entire View/Vancouver vacant lot is being used to store the machinery and pipe etc.

[Rob Randall]

View / Vancouver Project Update to February 15, 2008

Project Overview

Status of Project Schedule: Project start date: September 24, 2007

Currently at 84% to substantial completion of March 14, 2008
Total completion date: April 11, 2008
Total weeks scheduled: 29 weeks
Current status: at 21 weeks completed
Weeks remaining: 8 weeks

Status of Budget: As of January 31, 2008, 67% ($2,487,660.01) of the contracted work is completed.
Total contract budget: $3,670,000.00
The next invoice, to February 29, 2008, is expected the week of March 17, 2008.

Planned Works

• Paving of Vancouver Street from Yates Street to Fort Street, and View Street, East of Vancouver Street is scheduled for February 18 & 19, weather permitting.

• Completion of new curb on View Street, West of Vancouver Street during the week ending February 22, 2008.

• Decorative sidewalk and driveway construction will continue on the North and South sides of View Street, between Vancouver and Cook and on the East side of Vancouver Street, between Fort and Yates over the next 2 weeks.

• Final restoration of the intersection of Fort Street and Vancouver Street will continue during the week ending February 22, 2008.

• Final restoration of the intersection of Yates Street and Vancouver Street will begin next week and continue over the next two weeks.

Current Progress to February 15, (21 weeks):

• Road excavation; 100%;
Existing curb and road base removed over extent of project.

• Cematrix lightweight cellular concrete Placement; 100%;
Cematrix completed over extent of project.

• Gravel Road Base; 85%;
Gravel in place over Cematrix and ready for paving on all of Vancouver Street and on View Street, east of Vancouver Street . Final grading of gravel to follow completion of curb on View Street, west of Vancouver.

• Curb & Gutter; 95%;
Curb complete in 1000 block View, and 1100 and 1200 block of Vancouver. Curb in the 900 block of View Street is approximately 80% complete.

• Street Lighting and Signals,
Eight cluster light bases and street lighting duct installed in 1000 block View. Work in progress at east side of intersection for signal bases, traffic controller and electrical kiosk.

• Sidewalks & Driveways; 5%;
Coloured and stamped concrete bands in place in 1000 block View Street.

• Yates and Fort Streets Intersection Restoration; 40%;
Concrete road base and temporary asphalt in place at Fort and Vancouver. Milling and final paving remain. At Yates Street, milling and final paving of utility trenches remain.

• Traffic;
Vancouver Street closed at Yates and at Fort. Access to 1000 block View, London Drugs underground parking, and 1100 block Vancouver driveways from View & Cook intersection. Access to Robbins Parking at 937 View and Griffin Plumbing at 941 View, via temporary ramp from Fort Street. 900 block View has local access only to driveways west of the project limits.

Prepared by:
Alberto Colantonio, Manager, Streets Engineering
David Luzzi, View / Vancouver Streets Project Liaison

[gumgum]

Before:


After:


Before:


After:

[gumgum]

Before:



After:

[Holden West]

Fantastic before and afters!

Those Vancouver St. boulevards are so huge. Does anyone else think they should go back and plant these shrubs like they used to have on Vancouver? I think it would look nice:

[Nparker]

Originally Posted by Holden West

Those Vancouver St. boulevards are so huge. Does anyone else think they should go back and plant these shrubs like they used to have on Vancouver?

In concept this is a nice idea, however considering that most of the city's boulevards are already poorly maintained, and they currently only sport grass, I can't see the benefit of adding more plantings that would ultimately just get neglected. Perhaps Victoria could institute an "adopt-a-boulevard" program similar to the "adopt-a-highway" concept. Locals could take on the maintenance/beautification of the boulevards near their homes or businesses in exchange for some minor tax breaks or similar incentives. Just a thought.

[jklymak]

Originally Posted by gumgum

Before:

After:

I love how they've added colour!

[gumgum]

^Funny thing is, when I took those "before" pictures, I mistakingly had my camera set at b&w. This was before the remediation was planned.

[G-Man]

I hate grass boulevards because they end up looking like crap and are a waste of space. They could have added some cool seating ot some nice little gardens.


Like seen below yet on a bigger scale.

[Rob Randall]

From the Juliet thread:

Originally Posted by gumgum

I like the fact that I see so many trees. Our greenery at an esthetically basic level is taken for granted; not to mention all the other obvious advantages they present. It should continue to be a priority to preserve and promote our urban forests and we should be putting more effort into protecting the trees further out (Saanich Penin, Sooke Hills, West Comms, etc.)

The City is very proud of its urban forest. I believe the number is 20,000 trees that are accounted for.

There was a lot of concern when the roots of one of the large trees on Vancouver was damaged during the View/Vancouver construction. The tree looked healthy to me, but an expert said it would die soon. So last week it was cut down. It was nearest to Fort St. on the west side. An engineering person told me in person and a letter detailing what had happened and what they will do was mailed to me. They take this very seriously. They will plant two new trees on that boulevard shortly.

They are also very concerned about making sure trees are disease-resistant. They no longer favour planting entire streets with one species of tree because disease could wipe them all out. Now they prefer to alternate different varieties so that if one tree gets a specific disease, it doesn't spread it to a neighbouring tree. That is why you're seeing more young magnolia trees among the older plum and cherry trees.

[Caramia]

They need to be planting more edible chestnut trees. There are only a couple of streets in Victoria that have them, and they have suddenly become rarer due to a blight that wiped them out in the eastern provinces. Every chestnut that falls from the ones we do have (I'm sorry I am blanking on which street has them - one near Clover Point I know) should be saved and nurtured.

[gumgum]

I think the city does a great job of protecting our urban forests. I know the care and maintenance of so many trees is not a soft option.

I saw them cutting down that tree on Vancouver near Fort. I was wondering why the hell they were cutting it down. It was so huge and healthy looking. Good to know they're replacing it with 2 more.

[gumgum]

^^Aren't there chestnut trees on south Cook? I guess they're not edible though.

[Nparker]

Originally Posted by gumgum

^^Aren't there chestnut trees on south Cook? I guess they're not edible though.

I believe those are "horse chestnut" trees, and as far as I know they do not produce edible "fruit". In fact I believe the horse chestnut is deadly to spiders...or at least keeps them at bay.

[Rob Randall]

I see people gathering them so they must be edible. Or are they in for a surprise later??

The Cook St. trees are Horse Chestnuts. (NParker simulposted me).

[Caramia]

As children we were warned that they were poison. However we certainly gathered them. Growing up in Cook Street Village is ALL about the conker wars!
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch...s/conkers.html

[Nparker]

The Horse Chestnut (according to Wikipedia)

Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree, commonly known as Horse-chestnut or Conker tree. It is native to a small area in the mountains of the Balkans in southeast Europe, in small areas in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria (Pindus Mountains mixed forests and Balkan mixed forests).[1] It is widely cultivated throughout the temperate world.

It grows to 36 m tall, with a domed crown of stout branches, on old trees the outer branches often pendulous with curled-up tips. The leaves are opposite and palmately compound, with 5-7 leaflets; each leaflet is 13-30 cm long, making the whole leaf up to 60 cm across, with a 7-20 cm petiole. The flowers are usually white with a small red spot; they are produced in spring in erect panicles 10-30 cm tall with about 20-50 flowers on each panicle. Usually only 1-5 fruit develop on each panicle; the fruit is a green, softly spiky capsule containing one (rarely two or three) nut-like seeds called conkers or horse-chestnuts. Each conker is 2-4 cm diameter, glossy nut-brown with a whitish scar at the base.[2]

The name is very often given as just 'Horse-chestnut' or 'Horse Chestnut'; the addition of 'Common' to the name helps distinguish it from other species of horse-chestnut. Despite its common name, the Horse-chestnut is not related to the Chestnuts (Castanea), which are members of the Beech faimily (***aceae). The Horse-chestnut is in the Buckeye family (Hippocastanaceae) and is in the same genus as other buckeyes, Aesculus. The Horse-chestnut has its common name due to the husks of the conkers being spiny and the conkers themselves shiny brown like the Chestnuts.[3] It is also claimed that the name is derived from the horse-shoe mark left on the twig after the leaf drops in Autumn.

The nuts, especially those that are young and fresh, are slightly poisonous, containing alkaloidsaponins and glucosides. Although not dangerous to touch, they cause sickness when eaten. Some mammals, notably deer, are able to break down the toxins and eat them safely. They are reputed to be good for horses with wind, but this is unproven and feeding them to horses is not advisable. The saponin aescin, however, has been used for health purposes (such as varicose veins, edema, sprains) and is available in food supplements, as is a related glucosideaesculin.[6]


Horse-chestnuts can be used to make jewelry using the conkers as beads.

[gumgum]

More about the horse chestnut tree...

This tall tree is indigenous to the Balkans and not India as its French name might suggest. It was brought from Constantinople and introduced into France in 1615. The name Horse Chestnut came about as the Turks used to feed chestnuts to their horses. Its bark is extremely useful in phytotherapy, as it is highly effective in treating blood circulation disorders. For a long time now, Horse Chestnut flour has been utilized cosmetically to give the skin extra radiance. The pulp is also used for making soap. Horse Chestnut extract is one of the ingredients in Clarins exclusive "Anti-Pollution" Complex.

(Edit ^simulposting)