Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans say they’re not sure what’s causing the walls of the Canso Canal to move.
Glen Fry, a DFO project manager, says they had difficulty putting cofferdams in the north end of the canal during a closure at this time in 2017.
Officials say the space between the walls decreased by about 7.5 cm.
Fry tells The Hawk the reason behind the movement is in question, but it shouldn’t have an impact on usage, as they expect to be ready for the canal to re-open to marine traffic April 15.
“We aren’t sure what the cause of that might be- that’s why we’ve asked Public Works to initiate an engineering investigation for us,” he says. “There’s no particular issue that we’re aware of that would prevent normal canal operations.”
Fry says they hope the investigation will start fairly quickly.
He says the timing makes sense.
“We’re taking the water out presently on the south end of the canal, and we hope to have access to the bottom of the canal at the south gates at the latter part of next week,” he says. “That’s a great opportunity to assess the exposed walls right to the bottom.”
Fry says it’ll probably be some time before they have a report, after which they would have to plan for possible maintenance.
He says the cost will depend on the RFQ.