Disastrous flooding in November is partly to blame for the “horribly bumpy” state of a Chilliwack roadway at the busy intersection of Yale Road and Hocking Avenue.
A deep trench was excavated in the northbound lane of Yale last October, followed by partial road closures to allow the contractor to upgrade the sewer main underground.
The temporary “cold patch” asphalt used in December to close the trench is now garnering complaints from drivers who bounce over it, but the rutted state of the road is only temporary.
Many of the more than 100 comments on a Facebook group post this week were critical of the rough patch job, including one poster who called it a “horribly bumpy road” for “a few hundred yards.”
Another poster joked: “Had to go back and pick my spine up off the road. Shot right out my mouth onto the road!”
The Chilliwack Progress has learned the work would have been completed by Nov. 19 but the entire project had to be put on hold after the record-setting rainfall of Nov. 14-15.
The relentless rain made it impossible for the city contractor to finish the work deep in the trench as the groundwater kept rising.
So project delays are to blame it turns out, not shoddy workmanship.
One aspect that many of the posters had wrong however was thinking that the roadwork was completed. The road is still set to see hot mix repaving to create a smoother surface once the weather warms up.
“The sanitary sewer work went deeper than a water main replacement, which increased the length of time to complete the project and required more extensive dewatering,” said David Blain, director of planning and engineering with the City of Chilliwack.
After a delay of several weeks during the weather disaster, the sewer project was completed in December.
“A cold patch was the only option at the time, the contractor will return when the weather is more suitable to mill and properly pave the trench,” Blain added.
RELATED: Sewer main upgrade slowed traffic last fall
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