MOTT to start building temporary access road to Old Fort

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Residents of Old Fort may soon have temporary access to the community, as the Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MOTT) continues to work at the landslide site.

The MOTT is beginning work to restore temporary access to Old Fort following the landslide which occurred in April. 

According to a May 15th Facebook post from the Peace River Regional District (PRRD), the MOTT will begin work on May 15th to restore two-lane access to the Old Fort communication. 

The post said heavy equipment will move tonnes of upslope material to a site south of the displaced road.

The PRRD said this work is necessary to allow road construction and will include removing the resident-built trail, which is currently used for access to the displaced road segment. As a result, the PRRD said there will be no safe access across the slide area.

Residents who have remained within the community evacuation order area are urged to evacuate immediately.

In an episode of This Week in the Peace, Darryl Gunn, the executive director for the Northern Region of the Ministry of Transportation and Transit’s Highway and Regional Services Division, provided an update on the Old Fort Landslide  

“We’ve obviously been monitoring the slide since it started moving on April 19th,” he said. “Over the last about a week, we’ve seen a slowing of the movement rate and over the last few days, it’s actually shown very little to no movement, which is great news.”  

Gunn said the ministry believes it is at a point where temporary access can be built to allow people to travel in and out of the area with their vehicles. 

According to Gunn, the work should take from three days to a week, depending on the condition of the ground once they begin digging. 

The ministry is aiming to provide temporary access due to the continued risk near the landslide site, Gunn said. 

“This is a temporary access, and the reason why we’re going with that is because of the water content and the slide mass,” he said. “There’s still a lot of risk of digging to rid of a lot of that, and it could cause more instabilities and delay getting access in the community.” 

He also said the ministry is waiting for the rest of the slide mass to dry before moving forward with permanent rebuilding of the road. 

“We thought that the water conditions would allow for us to just rebuild the road right away,” he said. “But we found just working with our engineers that it’s best to just be able to get that asset established to get people back in the community once that evacuation order is lifted.”

Gunn said when the last slide occurred, MOTT conducted several operations, including an engineering review, geotechnical studies, and core samples, to better understand the slide-monitoring instruments. 

According to Gunn, the ministry will use its findings from the April landslide to determine how they apply in the long term. 

Residents seeking up-to-date information on the landslide can visit the DriveBC website, Gunn said. He also suggested residents keep up with information posted by the PRRD. 

The evacuation order and alert issued by the PRRD for the Old Fort landslide remain in effect.

View the full episode of This Week in the Peace below: