Part of a municipal road collapsed in Rawdon in Lanaudière on Saturday due to a beaver dam which the municipality’s mayor said “may have breached”. Traffic will be halted until at least next Friday while repair work is carried out.
Posted at 2:47pm
Henri Ouellette-Vézina La Presse
It was around 4:50 am on Saturday morning when this spectacular collapse took place. The scene took place on the Chemin du Lac-Morgan near the village of Canadiana.
“We think it’s a beaver dam that broke. There are three culverts that collapsed and then the water flowed down the street. It’s been happening pretty intensely,” Rawdon Mayor Raymond Rougeau said over the phone.
Under the pressure of the penetrating water, the asphalt and the path quickly crumbled. According to the city, it has already received three offers from contractors to carry out repairs.
“We have some culverts in stock in our municipal garage which means we anticipate the contractor could potentially start work on Monday. And we can deliver the culvert, which speeds up the repair. If all goes well, the road will reopen next Friday,” Mayor Rougeau said.
Meanwhile, much of the Chemin du Lac-Morgan remains closed. Detours have been set up for motorists, which take an average of 20 minutes longer for citizens passing through, depending on the destination. At least that’s what the city administration, which has to bear the costs of this collapse, believes.
This is not the first time such an event has occurred in the Rawdon Sector. A few years ago there was a major subsidence in Queen Street. Subsequent repairs had taken nearly three months. Last year, a culvert also broke in the Rue de la Montagne.
For Mr Rougeau, such incidents could become more frequent in the future, given “the weather that is sometimes intensely unleashed”.