Capilano Highways crews were scrambling Saturday to respond to major washouts in Roberts Creek, blamed on a combination of unusually heavy rain and snow melt.
The 1800 block of Lower Road leading to Highway 101 has been closed due to a washout that exposed gas lines and the regional water main.
Tyler Lambert, manager of roads for Capilano Highways, said the damage is so severe that a geotechnical review has been requested. “We’ll need a couple more days just to get the geotechnical work done and work out a plan with Fortis,” he told Coast Reporter Saturday afternoon.
Traffic has been detoured to Joe Road, “so nobody’s been cut off,” he said.
A washout on Beach Avenue at Camp Douglas had residents concerned that access could be cut off to Henderson and Park avenues and the western end of Beach Avenue.
The damaged section of Beach Avenue, located at the foot of Flume Creek, remained open as a single lane as of Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, resident Paddy Wales told Coast Reporter that the road was “half gone” and “undercut to the centre, although asphalt remains, unsupported from below.”
About half a block north, Margaret Road was also closed to traffic at a point where “the same water crosses through and around the culverts,” Wales said. She noted, however, that residents on Margaret and Carey roads and Gem Place have alternate access to Flume Road via the Ikelon Mobile Home Park.
Lambert said crews were being sent to Beach Avenue to better assess the situation after they dealt with major flooding at Jack Road and Highway 101, where traffic controllers were setting up a single lane and crews were trying to open up plugged catch basins.
