City reveals $28M price tag to shore up slumping southeast slope

In a report to city council's finance committee, it's finally been revealed just how much the City of Calgary is spending to stabilize a slope in the southeast communities of Douglasdale and McKenzie Lake.

"The value of the work that has been done to date is $21.6 million and the estimated cost at completion is $28 million," states the report.

Work has been ongoing for the past few years. The goal is to stabilize the slope which was gradually slumping into the Bow River valley below it.

Several sections of a city pathway were damaged and that had some residents of the area keeping a watchful eye out their back windows, just metres from the edge of the slope.

The city had contractors place hundreds of concrete piles some as deep as 30 metres to shore up the hillside and build a 300 metre long retaining wall.

The cost of the repairs was known internally last year but city officials refused to release it publicly.

This information is only reaching the public domain now because Coun. Peter Demong called last November for a report to council on the expenditure.

If he hadn't, the figure might have remained confidential for years to come under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

Demong tells CBC News he's glad the figure is finally public information.

"Am I happy about it? No. Do I realize that some things are going to cost money? Yeah," said the long-time council member who represents the area.

"I'm always stunned at how much stuff costs. Having said that, we are talking about stabilizing an entire section of a neighbourhood."

Problems date back to 2005

The problems with the slope were detected back in 2005.

Following heavy rains in 2016, the problem had gotten worse and sections of a city pathway collapsed.

The portion of the pathway on the edge of the slope north of 130th Avenue remains closed to pedestrians and cyclists.

Construction continues at the site and the work is expected to be completed this summer.

Demong said he hopes that the city's planning department will take into account the possibility of similar situations elsewhere and will prevent anything from being built too close to the edges of slopes.

"I know of several that could come along those lines. We're talking Cranston. There's Legacy. There's a whole lot of little areas all through the city that could become potential issues," said Demong.

The report notes that a monitoring program is in place to guard against any more problems on the slope and that future work may be required if the slumping continues.