City's leaders must acknowledge public's concerns over sinkholes

At the second news conference on Ottawa's Rideau Street sinkhole in as many days, city officials had few answers.

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What caused the giant, gaping hole in one of the city's major thoroughfares? Too early to say.

Was it related to the tunnel being bored underground for theLRT? Not sure.

Will it delay the light-railproject? And who'll pay for those delays? We'll get back to you.

But there was something else missing at Thursday's news event: public acknowledgement that we, as a city, were lucky that no one was hurt.

Bus passed minutes before collapse

There was only one moment during the 45-minute press conference where there was a modicum of recognition that a human disaster had been narrowly avoided.

That came whenCBC reporter Steve Fischer asked about when the last OC Transpo bus passed over the piece of the street that is nowa four-lane crater.

OC Transpoboss JohnManconi was ready with the answerbecause he hadgrappled with thesame question: only minutes before the earth opened up, a bus carrying 40 to 50 passengers passedover that very spot. (AGatineau STO bus also passed by, although it was empty at that hour.)

Reporters were told about when RideauStreetmight be reopened (a week, if we're lucky) and how long an investigation may take (likely two months).

There was praise for first responders and workers who contained the sinkholeand scrambled to get hydro and gas services back up and running.

Both those utilities were reinstated by Thursday afternoon, although there was still a boil-water advisory in effect for a number of businesses near the Rideau-Sussex intersection,including those at the Rideau Centre, which was forced to close its food court.

'Sinkholes happen'

But what of Mayor Jim Watson's comment uttered not just once, but twice that can be boiled down to, "Sinkholes happen in cities?" If that's his strategy to make us all feel safer, it's a dubious one.

It's not that Watson is wrong about sinkholes, as Ottawansknow all too well. In 2014, Waller Streetcollapsedat the eastern end of the downtown tunnel. There again, we were lucky no one was hurt.

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And lightrail tunnel-related sinkholes have occurred in other cities. (City officials were at pains Thursday to point out that no one knows yetif the sinkhole is related in some way to the tunnellingoccurring under that exact location. If it's not related, that would be one stunning coincidence.)

During last year'stunnellingfor the light rail system linking the Vancouver-area communities ofCoquitlam and Burnaby, four sinkholes occurred. Four! They delayed the opening of the LRT there by several months.

But Watson appears to have taken the Vancouver example as a way to indicate that, by gosh, these things happen.

And while no one wants a leader who panics, we do want one who directly addresses our concerns. Or at least acknowledges that those concerns are valid.

During theWallersinkhole incident, thendeputy manager NancySchepersexplicitly proclaimed that "we are very fortunate there were no injuries associated with the incident." It wasn't much, but at least it acknowledged the public's fears.

Failure to communicate over LRT

In Vancouver, public meetings were held where worried residents looking for reassurance could ask questions. Will Ottawa residents have that same opportunity?

And where was Rideau Transit Groupat the city press conferences? There are questions we'd like to ask of the company actually building this $2-billion light rail thing we keep hearing so much about.

It was weeks after the Waller Street sinkhole incident before the media was able to speak with anyone from the consortium, and that was only afteran investigation was complete.

A geological report prepared for RTG showed that digging beneath Rideau Street was going to be tricky. Was there any thought given to closing that part of Rideau during the tunnelling?

Just one more question no onehas answered.