The city has put on hold any further drilling work connected to the future expansion of Ray Gibbon Drive until staff can figure out how to handle a gas pocket discovered last week.
“We just put the drilling on hold right now until further review and analysis,” said Larry Galye, a project manager with the city.
The leak closed roads around Ray Gibbon and Giroux Road for almost 24 hours last Wednesday, but was capped early Thursday morning by a specialized drilling crew. Fire crews and RCMP officers remained on scene during that time to monitor the situation.
An engineering firm the city contracted to do some of the early engineering studies for the road expansion found the pocket after drilling down 22 metres to take core samples.
The gas started leaking slowly, but increased in volume into Wednesday afternoon, prompting the fire department to expand the road closures.
Levels started to drop later that day, which ended any concerns about potential home evacuations. Readings continued to fall until the hole was capped.
Galye said they don’t yet know what this will mean for the expansion of Ray Gibbon Drive.
“We need to sit down with our geotechnical people and our engineers and discuss it further.”
He said because the site will one day be expanded when the road becomes a provincial highway, they had to drill very deep.
“There is going to be an interchange there so we are going down to bedrock because when you build an interchange, it is a big structure and there are going to be piles, hundreds of piles for the interchange.”
He said the city is still waiting to determine what type of gas was released, but they are certain it was a natural pocket.
“As far we are concerned it was a natural pocket because there are no gas lines, there are no oil lines, there is nothing in the area.”
He said the city doesn’t have a specific timeline for figuring out a response.
“It is something we will have to look at and see what the construction alternatives are.”
