Watch above: Nutana properties continue to slide as the slope worsens along the bank near the South Saskatchewan River. Meaghan Craig has the latest from the city and a look at the repair options being put forward.
SASKATOON – Some grim news for homeowners along Saskatchewan Crescent in Saskatoon who have been living with a slope failure in their backyard for years. Millions will need to be spent to fix the issue, with a potential cost of upwards of a million dollars for each homeowner.
According to the City of Saskatoon, the first reported movement in the 200 and 300 blocks of Saskatchewan Crescent and 11th Street East were reported in 2012 and were significant.
“This is primarily a private matter and the city does not involve itself with private property decisions,” said Mike Gutek, chief engineer and director of major projects for the city. “The engineering responsibility on private property for structures for habitation lies with the builder.”
The city did commission a report, however, in 2013 following a second failure.
READ MORE: City calls Nutana slope failure ‘unpredictable’
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On Wednesday, the findings of an independent engineering report, which was verified by a third party, were revealed. Four options were suggested for consideration on how to fix the failure caused by weak soil, a steep slope and high water table but only two are being recommended by Golder Associates.
Address the groundwater and flatten the slope which would mean the removal of structures impacting eight to 10 homeowners. This option is within the range of 6.5 and 10 million dollars.
The most highly recommended option is to address the groundwater and the weak soil by stabilizing the zone with concrete or a rock material however this options comes at a 10 to 20 million dollar price tag. Which homeowners would need to pay has yet to be determined.
“It depends on the group, that is a very good question, deciding on who and how the group of property owners would pay for that under the current scenario but under that scenario no properties would be lost,” remarked Gutek.
Both options would take 18 to 36 months to complete.
According to Gutek the City of Saskatoon applied to the province for this to be covered under the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program but was denied.
When Gutek was asked by the media how long homeowners have to formulate a plan, he would only say based on the information that they have the slope is unstable and that “mother nature is in control.”
“What we’ve seen in the field is that once it’s rain weather and once all the frost is out of the ground and the water tables are recharging and we’ve got heat and we’ve got all of that happening, that’s when we’ve had movement.”
The report will now head to executive committee next Wednesday. While city council may choose to participate in remediation and contributing financially, the city typically doesn’t contribute to remediation on private property.
For more information you can click on the this link and scroll to Item 7.2.2.
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