136 E VOICE OF NORTH A

*

raresapancr ar

iE:

GRAND STYLE B.C. Place hosts the Spring Home and Garden Show.

THE MUSIC MAN

North Vancouver actor Mark Hopkins stars in his dream gig.

Am Peciee PR scr cea ee! Wis Nt craTe Mibsrad Ses poihees z FPoviatined 10' “ey RSp pe Gains pital H Pere ees a a

February 16, 1994 72 pages Office, Editorial 985-2131 Display Advertising 980-0511

$825,000 awarded to family of man killed in Hwy 99 rockfall

A DEADLY rockfall two years ago on the Squamish Sea To Sky Highway has resulted in a $825,000 court award for the family of a Squamish man killed at Porteatu Bluffs.

1991, it was loose enough to scale in F988,

Porteau Bluffs. where the natur- al mountainside was blasted away during the original construction of the Squamish Highway, is a notori- ous rock fall site.

On Dec. 8. 1987, fess than four years before the fatal accident, a sive rock slide from the bluffs

Fea gk acto

NEO tay nse cas

. Boer . an “eLALIPULY OS

AES Mes Casty Road COR Pau, US

Re

er

St

. ae | 2 I

i] =

ae

1

ft

at

Thieves hit library

By Brent Mudry ma

Cantributing Writer

In a decision released Monday in Vancouver. B.C. Supreme Court Mr. Justice Kenneth James Smith found the provincial highways department negligent in failing to ensure that adequate rock-scaling had been performed on the high- wity’s cliff face.

Robert Norman Holt was dri- ving home from a family reunion on the highway on Sept. 3. 1991. when a large rock crashed through his windshield,

The rock fractured Holt's skull. He died soon after.

New roc! ating had been scheduled to start at the site on the day of the accident.

In a separate irony, Ministry: of Transportation and Highways (MOTH) contract sealers were scheduled to work on the site at the time of the recent 10-day negli- gence tink which ended Sept. 23 in Vancouver.

John Laxton, the Hott family lawyer. claimed the killer ¢ should have been sealed three years earlier, bur the Crown denied all wlegations of negligence.

The rock faee. which is near Porteau Cove. approximately 24,5 kin (15.2 miles) north of Horseshoe Bay. 20 haa C124 miles) south of Squamish, wits heavily Fractured and cracked.as shown in cour-filed photographs taken ii JUSS,

“The rock which fell and struck Mr. Holt should have been scaled during the work done under the Cerka contract.” Justice Smith ruled.

The court heard conflicting dence on whether MoTH officials or supervisors with Cerka Contract ominagement ol Langley. the rock- seate subcontractor, ardered tack- scaling to be paomaturely complet ed in 98s,

But, stued the judge. “Whether the Cerka scalers neglecied to scale the rocks in question, or whether they were dintructed not to, is of ne CORSCQUCHEE,

“Has tay conclusion that they did not attempt to scabs the rock

blocked the highway.

One month later, the site was designated a Priority | area by a ministry rockwork technician. meaning the bluff had “very high probability of failure with attendant serious consequences.”

Cerka. the low bidder, was hired to remove an estimated 300 eubie metres of rack and overburden from the area in which the Holt death rock fell from,

The job was given a 600 man- hour work estimate.

Cerka completed the tvo- month, 362-hour job on Dec, 22. 1988, billing SE E462.

The Highways Ministry was sat- isfied, and downgraded the site to Priority 3. but an internal memo noted “further remedial work is required at the Porteau Bluffs.”

Evidence showed that the site was an accident waiting to happen for months, if not years, before the fatal rack fall.

Additional rock stabilization was contemplated at Porteay Bluffs in early 1991, when the provincial government considered building a new ferry terminal on Howe Sound.

On Sune 5, 199). three months before the Holt rockfall, Highways Ministry staff made a helicopter inspecdion of the site afer a coud: level inspection was conducted two days cartier,

The bluff was further examined by chinbers and another helicopter thy-by,

With no urgent need established, the rescaling was set to start an Sept. 3. 1990, but Holt was kilfed hours betore the work began,

Sean Ellis, scaling supervisor with B.A.T. Construction, which wan the second cantrich: was critt- calof the state in whieh the Holt source area had been left following Cerka's 1998 work,

But Ellis readily conceded that he knew the Cer s confident in their competence and that he would have accepted their word if they said they had scaled the bluff,

“ta the face of that evidence | do

THERE IS no telling what will happen to the library card belonging to the culprit who was recently responsible for the illegal take-out of computer equipment at North Vancouver City’s public library. Library staffer Lestie Wiedmann shows the shell of a CD ROM tower stripped during the theft. See story on page 5.

which fell and struck Mr. Holt” Dr. Chuck Brawner of UBC, a rockfall expert. testified with YO% to OS certainty that if the Holt rock was Joose enough to fall in

not Hightly come to the conclusion (hat Cerka employees failed to scale the rock which Phave con- cluded fell from the overburden and struck Mr. Hott,” the judge noted.

CHING