It is expected to cost more than $1 million to completely fix a sinkhole in the dike near the JAMES wastewater treatment plant that serves Abbotsford and Mission.
The sinkhole was detected last year, and staff said at the time that it had been temporarily backfilled while plans were made to fix the situation.
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The sinkhole was only partially fixed earlier this year, with ground-penetrating radar to ensure temporary fix would survive the freshet. More work needs to be done, Rob Isaac, the city’s general manager in charge of engineering and regional utilities, told council at budget meetings last. Those fixes won’t come cheaply.
The city’s engineering department has suggested a project with a budget of $1.15 million to fully investigating the cause of the sinkhole, and design and rebuild the piece of dike.
The project has a budgeted cost of $1.15 million.
“We’re not quite sure how it formed,” Isaac said. “We feel it’s our due diligence to investigate it further and ensure it’s corrected.”
Coun. Dave Loewen asked if the province should be covering the cost of the repairs, but Isaac said that the city infrastructure in the area is likely responsible for the sinkhole.
“It’s likely due to some of that infrastructure, not the overall dike program,” he said.
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