Laurentian research team chips in to fix Radar Road damage

The director of a seismic testing project in Sudbury says his team will pick up the tab for minor damages to a local road.

The damages are three small 'divots'to a stretch of Radar Road, Metal Earth project directorHaroldGibsontold CBC News.

Ward 5 CityCouncillor Robert Kirwan alerted Gibson and the city to the concerns after a noticeable dip could be seen on the road.

"Basically, the damage to the road is limited," Gibson said. "The municipality sent their team out to look at the depressions in the road, and they're going to have an assessment done, with a cost."

The damages likely occurred as a result of heavy vibration trucks using the road, Gibson said.

The research team's vibration trucks send out seismic waves, which reflect off features in the earth's crust and then back to receivers or geophones that have been spread out 20 to 30 metres apart.

• Seismic testing to uncover mineral potential in resource-rich regions

The damage also pointed to something interesting in the road itself, Gibson said.

"The road on either side [of the impact points] was also vibrafied, and there was no damage."

"What we really picked out were weaker parts of the road."

Gibson said in all the testing the group has done across Ontario and Quebec, and damage is so infrequent they rarely plan for it.

"We didn't want this to happen. We did our darndest to make sure it wouldn't happen. And It's function of circumstances. We just hit a weaker section of the road," Gibson said.

The contractor isn't held liable for the damages, Gibson said. The cost for repairs will be coming out of Metal Earth Project's research grant.