City seeks permanent solution for problem pathway in McKenzie Lake

Extensive repairs to path along the Bow River A busy pathway is getting a much-needed overhaul to stop it from slumping. Kevin Fleming has more.

A pathway that winds up a hill in McKenzie Lake has started to slowly collapse again, leading the city to seek a more permanent fix to the problem.

People who live on the bluff have seen the pathway crack and slump time and again over the last decade.

“It’s given way just so much, I think it sunk about three or four feet at the worst point, and it’s definitely been a struggle,” said Rona, who lives at the top of the bluff.

“Three weeks ago, I noticed that the new path was dropping fast, it was very fast,” said Sam Nikakhtar, resident.

About 55,000 people per month use the pathway, according to the City of Calgary. That kind of heavy traffic, along with the close proximity of houses, has led the city to try various fixes on the path to no avail.

“The quick fixes haven’t worked, so we have gone and tried re-paving the pathway, it rains and a few months later it starts slumping down again, so we saw that earlier this summer,” said Sean Somers, City of Calgary Transportation Dept.

A summer of heavy rain hasn’t helped either, so now the path is blocked off once again, but this time, the work will be more extensive.

“We are shoring up the top of the slope to ensure we can get equipment safely on there to conduct the work further down the slope and across the slope later on,” said Somers. “There is about a 100 to 400 metre stretch that has to be addressed immediately to ensure that we can lock that down, and that’s going to help with the bigger picture. All in, there is about a three kilometer stretch of bluff or hill along here, so eventually we’ll have to get to all of it.”

Deep holes are being dug and filled with concrete to shore up the slope, and while the fence lines of some properties will be affected, nearby homes will not be.

The work will run all month long, and the first phase should be complete by the end of September.