Landslide still mucking up 403 in Hamilton

(Updated)

Drivers have been using a lot more gas to get around the lane closure on the 403 near York Boulevard this week. The broken watermain that caused the mudslide and subsequent traffic nightmare is finally fixed tonight. But crews are still working on the embankment, which means a few more days of delays for drivers.

The ongoing slope repairs here are still creating some major slowdowns for drivers especially for those heading into the city. Thousands of drivers use this route every day. And these delays will continue through the rest of the week

Traffic is slow, moving in and out of the city.

The York Boulevard ramp off the highway is still closed. So also is one lane of the eastbound 403. as crews continue to fix this slope after Friday’s mudslide.

All week they’ve been trucking in concrete and dirt to stabilize it. And now they have to fill this big hole that was left behind. It looks like a cave in the embankment, almost tall enough to stand up in.

Dan McKinnon, Director of Hamilton Water: “Crews are working on filling those with grout. It’s a low strength concrete so it flows very easily it will fill up all the voids that exist but its a low enough strength that you can dig it out later if you have to.”

Crews have now fixed this broken watermain they say the hole was about 6 inches wide and it was in the bottom of the pipe so water was leaking down into the ground.

McKinnon: “It was a hole in the bottom of the main that’s not unusual. It’s the kind of failure that we see on a fairly regular basis.”

The city planned to rehabilitate the 50-year-old watermain this year by re-lining it but couldn’t because of highway ramp construction on York Boulevard by the MTO

For now they’ve repaired the section of pipe that was damaged but the entire main may eventually need to be replaced

McKinnon: “I suspect that one of the things we will be looking at it whether or not over the longer term we need to replace that section of the main or line it.”

This is where the watermain was that broke and has now been repaired but York Boulevard here will stay closed until the slope is fixed they hope to have everything open by the end of the day on Friday.