Vancouver — Drivers should prepare for potential traffic delays as crews begin remediation work to fix a caved-in parking lot in Mount Pleasant, according to the City of Vancouver. A portion of Congee Noodle House's parking lot collapsed into a construction pit Friday, attracting onlookers throughout the weekend. A director with SFU's Centre for Natural Hazards Studies told CTV News a situation like this is rare. "Especially in the city, sometimes it happens away from buildings where they're doing excavation and sometimes you get a minor collapse, but this is unusual," said Brent Ward. Ward saw a photo online showing how the parking lot looked before the collapse, and he said there were already cracks visible, and that was a warning sign. "It's a deep excavation and the material wasn't quite strong enough to hold up that vertical face, so it got some initial cracks in the parking lot, once those cracks opened up it gave a way for the rain water to go in. It would've saturated this soil and it would've caused the failure," he explained. On Friday, there were no customers inside Congee Noodle House because it was already closed for scheduled maintenance. The restaurant remains closed as a precaution as WorkSafeBC and city engineers continue to assess the site. The city said a side of the excavation wall caved in and its experts are investigating how that happened. The construction site, 138 East 8th Avenue, was in the process of being developed into a six-storey condo. "The site owner is implementing their remediation plan to support the adjoining property at Congee Noodle House," Neal Wells, spokesperson for the City of Vancouver, said in an email. He warned the public should anticipate traffic delays along East 8th Avenue as crews move vehicles and equipment.
