It’s been a 12 months now since a November storm beached an unmoored barge in Vancouver.
Town initially deliberate to “refloat” the barge that week. When that failed, plan B emerged: a contractor would dismantle the barge and take away it from Sundown Seaside piece by piece. The preliminary timeline given to the town promised to vanish the beloved icon and menace by March 2022.
So what took so lengthy?
The primary proposal in January 2022 by Vancouver Pile Driving — the corporate employed by the unfortunate barge proprietor Sentry Marine Towing’s insurance coverage firm — estimated the whole disassembly to start in February and end together with cleanup the next month.
Picture by way of a report by Advisian ready for the Metropolis of Vancouver.
However the deconstruction of the barge had not but even begun by April 2022, emails present, updating the completion purpose to July 2022.
Paperwork obtained by The Tyee by freedom of knowledge legal guidelines in spring 2022 are practically utterly redacted, save for just a few references to timber needing pruning for entry in March.
However less-redacted inner communications from the Metropolis of Vancouver between April and July shed some mild on why even the up to date plan was to not come to fruition.
1. Undesirable nest eggs
Emails present that environmental evaluation agency Hatfield Consultants had been introduced in in late April 2022 to do “environmental administration and regulatory assist” for Vancouver Pile Driving.
Upon analyzing the barge web site, Hatfield discovered a goose nest within the “ahead doorway” on the centerline of the bow wall.
Hatfield notified the town that it might have to get added to the town’s present allow for “goose addling” — the observe of sneaking off with goose eggs, aborting them if they’re fertilized and stashing them again in an unsuspecting goose’s nest for inhabitants management.
In any other case, Hatfield nervous it might not be capable to get hold of its personal allow in time to forestall goslings, which, if born, can be coated by the Migratory Birds Conference Act and would necessitate a 30-metre “no-activity” buffer till the goslings reached fledgling standing.
The addling seems to have been executed on time.
2. Shaking the lead out
Additional assessments by Hatfield detected what could be anticipated of a barge initially constructed in Oregon in 1967: a complete lot of lead paint. The unique heavy metallic primer was discovered all around the barge’s partitions and hulls beneath different paint layers, including to the complexity of disassembly since energy instruments may trigger chips to land in waters and on employees.
Testing for asbestos was additionally performed however turned up destructive all through the classic watercraft.
Paperwork present that Vancouver Pile Driving had a lot bother in April 2022 finding simply who may log off for permitting heavy equipment to move over the underwater sewer pipes encased in cement alongside the seawall.
Graphic from the Hazardous Supplies Survey Report by ORCA Well being and Security Consulting Inc.
One e mail on April 8 exhibits that this challenge had already dragged on sufficient to thwart plans to have equipment herald fencing and water-filled obstacles earlier than a “420 occasion” that was more likely to convey partiers and “undesirable climbers” to the seaside, operations supervisor Ian Purvis at Vancouver Pile Driving wrote.
By April 20, it was thought fence and barrier set up may start by Might 2. However per week later, on April 26, it was nonetheless unclear who on the Metropolis of Vancouver may log off for entry.
“We’ve assessed the masses on the Metro Vancouver drive primary however we can not decide if the loading on the pipe is appropriate with out realizing Metro Vancouver’s standards,” wrote Purvis.
“I’ve adopted up a number of instances with Metro Vancouver and haven’t but obtained a response to our inquiry. I am going to strive once more tomorrow,” Purvis wrote.
If the obstacles and fences had been put in beginning Might 2, the contractors believed they may begin dismantling the barge on Might 9. However that didn’t occur.
4. If you don’t construct fences, they are going to come
Fencing and water-filled barrier set up nonetheless seemed to be a prime precedence for unfinished enterprise in e mail threads from the town in early June 2022. By June, nevertheless, the documentation seems to point out Metropolis of Vancouver supervisor Harry Khella chasing Vancouver Pile Driving reasonably than the opposite manner round.
An change between the 2 exhibits the fee estimate for the job was then estimated at $2.4 million and that deconstruction estimates, initially pegged at 10 weeks, have crept to 12 to fifteen.
On June 3, Khella asks for the fence set up to start at once.
On June 9, Khella, apparently having obtained no reply, asks for an replace and hears that the fences received’t be put in till June 22. Every week later the scheduled set up date is pushed again but additional by Purvis of Vancouver Pile Driving to June 30.
On June 29, Khella raises {that a} “Symphony of Sundown” occasion happening on July 2 close by might be beginning to set up its personal fencing, so Vancouver Pile Driving will should be immediate with its fence set up. In one other e mail, he says the websites won’t overlap.
On June 30, Purvis arrives and stories that the websites do, the truth is, overlap. The work space is just too restricted from fencing and work will stop.
Photograph by Bryan Carney.
Khella makes calls to make sure entry. By July 4, fence and barrier set up has begun and is scheduled to complete by 2 p.m. on July 5.
However the subsequent e mail from Khella on July 6 incorporates a hyperlink to a Vancouver Is Superior story, “Video: Shirtless man climbs onto beached English Bay barge (sure it’s nonetheless there).”
Above the hyperlink, Khella writes, “1. Simply closing the loop on this — is barrier and fencing set up full? 2. Has the free rope that’s hanging off the barge been eliminated?”
After being requested for assurances for safety protocols, Purvis assures on July 8 that the safety guard will now stay exterior for the whole shift besides on break, will now not use a automotive for a shelter throughout the day, and if utilizing a automobile for shelter at evening he should “stay alert.”
5. Ready to listen to ‘go’ from the Sto:Lo Nation
An e mail chain on July 18 notes that barge disassembly can start after the contractor receives Heritage Investigation Permits from the Sto:Lo Nation — the ultimate nation to log off in an effort to fulfill consultations with the Musqueam Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Sto:Lo Nation, as required underneath provincial regulation.
The ultimate e mail uncovered by way of FOI reveals the permits are in place and prep work will lastly start July 25.
For the reason that freedom of knowledge entry request took simply over three months for the town to fulfil, there are not any more moderen updates from inner communications.
Town confirmed Nov. 24 it had eliminated the ultimate remnants of the barge, calling it a “15-week deconstruction operation.” If true, that might imply it took but just a few weeks longer than the final estimate of July 25 to get deconstruction underway. ![[Tyee]](https://thetyee.ca/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
