City proposes berm toward off Marwell floods

At 300 metres long and four metres wide at the top, it’s hoped a berm along the Yukon River in the Marwell subdivision will keep the area from flooding due to ice jams.

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) began its public input process into the proposal put forward by the city.

“Basically, it’s to prevent the ice jams from flooding (the area). It’s a way to combat it,” George Farrow, an engineering technologist with the city, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

The proposal, based on the findings of a city-commissioned study in 2002, would see the dike constructed about 10 metres away from the river.

The berm, which would measure anywhere from one to two metres in height depending on the contour of the ground, would take about six weeks to construct.

The city is proposing a more gradual build that could take upwards of three years to create, with construction slated to happen anytime between May 1 and Oct. 31 in any given year between now and 2013, say documents on the YESAB website.

“It’s sort of a side project,” Farrow explained.

There’s no money in the 2010 budget for the work.

However, Farrow said, the city put in the YESAB application so if there are building projects around town that involve removing dirt from the ground that could be used for the dike, it can then at least be moved to the Yukon government strip of land nearby Capital Towing Services Ltd. and a private residence.

The YESAB documents list principal activities for the work as:

• testing for contaminated soils/materials in the area of the proposed dike;

• potentially removing any of those contaminated materials and/or soil;

• constructing the dike by putting in silts and rip-rap, requiring a total area of approximately 4,800 square metres;

• clearing and grading the land; and finally

• reclamation work.

Just how much it will cost to do all the work remains unknown. Farrow said the city will likely bring the work forward in the 2011 budget.

“There certainly isn’t a budget (for it) this year,” he said.

It’s not expected to cost a lot if the city uses silt and material that’s already coming out of the ground for other projects.

The main expense would come in the form of equipment costs for the work, but it would not be a major budget item, he suggested.

“It’s certainly beneficial to the Marwell area,” Farrow said.

The city, he said, had looked at doing the work in 2004, but that never came to fruition.

Submissions on the project to the YESAB are being accepted until March 16.