Cleanup of the landslide debris in Whitehorse and the construction of the sheet pile wall are set to begin on Wednesday or Thursday next week, say city officials.

Tracy Allen, the city’s director of operations, said the city expects the cleanup will take a day or a day and a half, while the construction of the sheet pile wall at the bottom of the escarpment where last month’s landslide took place will take at least seven to 10 days to complete.

“And then we would be looking at reopening Robert Service Way,” she said.

The road, which is one of the two main thoroughfares into downtown Whitehorse, has been closed since April 30 when 3,000 to 4,000 cubic metres of sand, silt and clay fell across it and the Millennium Trail and into the Yukon River.

Crews haven’t been able to get into the area and clean up the debris or start the construction of the sheet pile wall because continued water seepage, soil movement and tension cracks have made it too dangerous.

The city said on May 12 it is building a 100-metre wide sheet pile wall at a cost of about $450,000 as a temporary measure, up to a year, to make sure another landslide doesn’t cross the thoroughfare.

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