Construction has begun in order to repair the Takhini Sanitary Trunk Main, which includes flow from the McIntyre and Takhini mains and that accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of the city’s total sewage
On June 1, 2022, a tension crack was discovered in the Takhini Sanitary Trunk Main, similar to others noted along the escarpment associated with landslides that year. The City of Whitehorse had concerns that the crack could lead to another landslide, one that could cause the manhole to tip over, resulting in an uncontrolled release.
In short, the rumour going around was that had these repairs should not have been undertaken; a river of sewage could have stormed Whitehorse, leaving its residents up shit creek with no paddle.
“We rerouted the sanitary trunk main, which previously went through the baseball diamonds and then down the escarpment behind the baseball diamonds and down to Copper Road and Tlingit Street,” explained the City of Whitehorse manager of engineering services, Taylor Eshpeter. “A couple of years ago, we had some slope stability concerns where the trunk comes down the escarpment, and there’s still an active tension crack there right at one of the maintenance chambers.”
Eshpeter continued to say that the project was kicked off last summer to realign the trunk around the baseball diamonds and down a gentler slope within the right of way of Mountain View Drive. The Takhini Sanitary Trunk Main accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of the total sewage in Whitehorse, so the results could have been disastrous.
“We’ve installed that main and commissioned it, and the flow has been redirected to the new sanitary trunk,” Eshpeter said. “It’s a critical piece of infrastructure.”
Last year’s focus was on getting the underground work done to get the main conditioned and routed over; and, with that complete, the next step is to finish the surface work on Range Road. A temporary bypass was installed but is no longer needed and will also be decommissioned, as it was a backup plan if the slope failed and had to be temporarily rerouted.
Thankfully, Whitehorse residents can count themselves safe from seeing a fecal flood, though Eshpeter noted it would have taken a significant amount more damage to the sanitary trunk main for anything like that to actually happen.
“We rely on that main; it’s the only main,” said Eshpeter. “We don’t know exactly what would happen if the slope failed, but in the worst-case scenario, if it had pulled the main out, it could have been discharging sewage and there would have been no way of stopping it.”
Eshpeter said residents can expect a PSA (public service announcement) before the surface construction starts. To read more about the work on the Takhini Sanitary Trunk Main, visit whitehorse.ca/whitehorse_project/takhini-sanitary-trunk-main.
“We appreciate people’s patience around it,” Eshpeter said. “There will be some disruptions to Range Road but we’ll communicate those as we get closer to that work and [will] do our best to mitigate those as well.”
