A beaver dam on a large pond near Trout Lake broke on the morning of Nov. 25, sending water rushing through ditches and culverts at such high volume that both Leaning Tree and Belair roads were compromised.
The earth beneath Leaning Tree Road at Highway 101 was washed away, leaving only a thin layer of asphalt remaining, and the entire roadway at Belair Road and Highway 101 was destroyed by the rushing water.
The driver of an SUV pulled onto Belair Road shortly after it washed away, causing the vehicle to tip vertically into the void. The driver was uninjured but a tow truck had to be called in to pull the vehicle back onto the roadway.
The beaver dam failed during the morning of Nov. 25, causing the water in the pond to drain out quickly and flood the roadside ditch, according to Tyler Lambert of Capilano Highway Services.
“This ditch runs along the highway for a fair distance running underneath Belair Road and then Lean-ing Tree Road before discharging into Kenyon Creek, which crosses Redrooffs Road before reaching the ocean,” Lambert said.
He noted access to both Belair and Leaning Tree roads was effectively “severed” by the flood, which lasted several hours, and that “Redrooffs Road was briefly flooded and a large section of the road shoulder was lost, but the rest of the road was not impacted.”
Capilano Highway Services responded with crews and equipment to barricade the roads and pile up rocks while they waited for the water to recede enough to place them beneath the collapsed roadways.
“We were able to retain access to Leaning Tree Road by the end of the evening but Belair was cut off overnight,” Lambert said.
“Residents were able to utilize an old trail from Leaning Tree over to Belair to access properties.”
The next day Capilano Highway Services brought in an additional excavator so work could be done on both roads simultaneously.
“We installed new culverts across the roads to allow the still considerable flows to continue and were able to restore access to both roads by the end of the day,” Lambert said, noting crews were continuing to work on the sites to clean them up.
“We will also be repairing the shoulder on Red-rooffs with blasted rock.”
He said the fixes should be enough to get through the winter but a fuller solution, including how to deal with another potential flood event, will have to be looked at. “The work completed was a temporary measure to restore access to both roads but is not a permanent fix,” he said.
