It wasn’t totally unexpected but approximately 100 metres of the west harbour wall in Port Hope collapsed on Tuesday, October 9, 2018.
The entire section of wall collapsed into the harbour and disappeared under the water.
Shortly after, staff from the town met with members of the Port Hope Area Initiative.
It didn’t take long for word to get out, as numerous onlookers slowed down or stopped on Hayward Street to get a look at where the perimeter wall of the harbour once was.
Mayor Bob Sanderson stopped by before heading to a municipal debate.
“It wasn’t a surprise, surprise,” said Sanderson.
“This wall has been under review for quite awhile. We had certainly hoped that the PHAI project would get in before this would happen, but we’re prepared for this. We’ve had engineers look at it and monitoring it.”
“Unfortunately it did fail, but we are fortunate there are no health or safety issues.”
Sanderson said at this point it’s a matter of containment of the silt with silt guards in place in the harbour by the wall.
“The next step is to make sure we don’t get further damage and how do we manage that.”
With Cameco’s Vision In Motion, PHAI/CNL clean-up and the municipality, we’re going to combine together as we have over the last few years.”
The wall belongs to the town and staff will be meeting with other officials on Wednesday to discuss what happens next.
Communications Specialist with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Bill Daly told Today’s Northumberland, “This afternoon the west wall of the Port Hope Harbour partially fell into the harbour. CNL and its contractors were not working in the area, so there was no risk to the safety of our workers and no one was hurt. In addition, public access to the area had already been restricted by the Municipality of Port Hope since the wall became noticeably unstable about a year ago. This is a previously known condition.
Daly stated the collapse of the wall was not caused by PHAI activities.
“The harbour walls are scheduled for reconstruction as part of the PHAI remediation in the 2019 construction season. CNL is working with the Municipality of Port Hope and Cameco to find a solution for repairs in response.”
Tuesday, October 9, 2018 – Port Hope, ON
The Municipality of Port Hope is advising residents that the west portion of the Port Hope Harbour wall has collapsed due to a structural failure. Residents are assured that this incident does not pose a health or safety concern and that Municipal staff are closely monitoring both the water quality and sanitary main pipe, while investigations continue.
The incident has been reported to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
The deterioration of the west harbour wall has been known to the Municipality and, as such, in 2017, a silt curtain was installed along the length of the wall as a precautionary measure, designed to prevent any suspended materials in the water from migrating into the rest of the harbour, should that area of the wall fail. The silt barrier was fitted as a temporary measure, until full remediation of the harbour was scheduled to take place.
The Municipality of Port Hope is working closely with its stakeholders to remedy the incident and will continue to keep residents apprised of the progress.
Inquiries may be directed to Jim McCormack, Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture at 905-885-8760 or jmccormack@porthope.ca.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
