Sand Cove Road report shows history of slope failures

The slope along a section of Sand Cove Road shows signs of previous slides, according to an engineering report prepared for the City of Saint John.

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The incidents include broken water lines, hydro poles and survey pins that have moved, and earlier tension cracks and landslides.

A preliminary report by Gordon Mouland of Fundy Engineering, which was dated March 20, 2015, wasobtained by CBC Newsthrough the Right to Information Act.

"This slope has experienced numerous slides in the past," said Mouland in the report.

"The slope has numerous tension cracks which indicate previous failures. Less than 20 years ago there was a slide on the adjacent property to the east. There is also evidence of previous failures in front of the Inn on the Cove property. A recent walk over the site (January 2015) shows there are new tension cracks in the western areas. The existing homes near the beach elevation show evidence of previous movement."

Sand Cove Road begins in the thick of west Saint John's suburbs and ends four kilometres away at the Irving Nature Park, a popular visitor destination.

City crews have closed one lane of the road for a stretch near the intersection of McLarens Beach Road as a precaution after erosion and soil instability carried away the shoulder last winter.

If the road became unusable as many as a dozen homes, a gravel pit and the nature park would be cut off completely to vehicle traffic.

A high energy erosion site, weak unconsolidated soils- Fundy Engineering report

The report describes bore holes drilled in 2004 for a previous study looking into land movement.

Those bore holes did not find bedrock, but showed instead sand and gravelover "firm or very soft clays."

The document says the contributing factors for the slope failure are:

• A high energy erosion site;
• Weak unconsolidated soils and coastal subsidence due to post glacial isostatic rebound.
• Material moved from the foreshore by wave action.

The property to the east of McLaren's Beach,where the report describes a slide two decades ago, is occupied by Holy Cross Cemetery.

The slide referred to may actually have happened around 1979 when cemetery land closest to the Bay of Fundy gave way leading to extensive remediation work.

Three people serving on the cemetery committee at the time told CBC News large rocks were placed along the beach and fill was trucked in to re-establish the slope.

Several graves were moved to other spots in the cemetery and there are indications of slope failure and erosiongoing back much further.

Former Sand Cove residentKeith Dow saidhe recalls seeing tree stumps well out on the mud flats of the cove around 1959 or 1960.

Dow says he was told by older area residents erosion had been eating away at the coast at Sand Cove for decades.

He says his father-in-law, George Chittick, built a breakwater across part of the cove in the 1960s to stop the erosion.

Last week Coun. Greg Norton told CBC News the full report would be delivered to city staff later this month and would be shared with Sand Cove residents at a meeting in February.

Fundy Engineering report