Vancouver seawall damage from storm, king tide still under assessment
Posted January 14, 2022 4:15 pm.
Last Updated January 14, 2022 6:55 pm.
Crews are still assessing the damage from the windstorm and king tide that took out whole sections of Vancouver’s seawall last week.
Huge chunks of broken concrete now line the road usually enjoyed by joggers, cyclists, and other park users. It stretches from Sunset Beach to the Lions Gate Bridge — a nearly unrecognizable scene from what visitors would have witnessed a month ago.
Reminder: the #seawall remains closed from Sunset Beach to Lions Gate Bridge. You can help our rangers & crews by respecting the closure.
Also, please be careful on the beaches. Do not climb on the debris/logs, & watch out for debris floating/below the water near the shoreline. pic.twitter.com/YhVLOQ0rXO
— Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation (@ParkBoard) January 8, 2022
Ian Stewart from the Vancouver Park Board says he was taken aback by the amount of destruction he saw.
“This has been an unfortunate combination of a king tide, very strong north-westernly winds, and a storm surge, which is a perfect storm,” he said.
Dr. Richard Dewey with UVic’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences says the city has to apply broad solutions to recovering from natural disasters and extreme weather events.
“And it’s not just the seawall. It’s the highways, it’s the bridges, it’s the trussels, it’s the dikes. We really need to have a broad set of solutions, looking at all the impacts climate change will have on us,” he said.
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City staff hope to build back better, not only repairing the seawall but make it stronger. That will require more municipal funding than what is available now.
Dewey says sea level is expected to rise by about a centimetre every decade, which should be taken into account during the reconstruction of the seawall.
“You’re going to have to build it to be a foot or two feet higher than it was previously if you expect it to last 50 years from now,” he said.
“It’s not just about building the seawall higher and better in the same location. We may have to have other engineering solutions.”
Huge efforts are getting results on the repairs to the #StanleyPark Seawall. Lots more to do but a big thanks to @ParkBoard team for what has been accomplished. pic.twitter.com/CjLKfIlM7M
— Tricia Barker (@TriciaBarker49) January 14, 2022
Sections of it remain closed off because of danger posed by large chunks of broken concrete.
It will be several weeks until city staff can disclose how much repairing the seawall will cost. Meantime, they’re working on repairs with help from senior levels of government.
“I don’t want to speculate until we have a full assessment of the damage and the scope and the full funding envelope we have to address it,” said Stewart.
