The Engineering Manager with the city of Kamloops says crews are monitoring ongoing slope stabilization work off Hillside Drive at the Home Depot, after it was closed Tuesday afternoon.
Deven Matkowski says that slope stabilization work is the responsibility of Home Depot, but the city is also working to gather more information about any work it has planned.
“If they are working on their building, like the normal building permit processes would apply,” he said.
“I’m not aware of them contacting us for any of that information but obviously we work with them or help process those if that was part of the action. But like I said, we can’t comment on what they are doing on their site.”
In a statement to media on Tuesday, Home Depot Corporate Communications Director Paul Berto says the closure of the store was a proactive step because of ‘possible ground movement’ in the surrounding area.
And he noted it was too soon to speculate when the store might reopen.
Matkowski also tells NL News that access to Kenna Cartwright Park by the Home Depot is temporarily closed, and crews have inspected the nearby Reservoir Trail.
“The trail seems fine but right now with the access closed, we do have the trail temporarily closed,” he added. “We do have other accesses to the trail so there’s mapping on how to access Kenna Cartwight, so the rest of the park is open, its just that section of trail is closed, and we are working to find out when we can open it.”
He doesn’t think the trail access will be closed for long, but says in the meantime, some pre-planned ditch work near the park entrance along Reservoir Trail will be done.
“You know the safety of the trail is something that we regularly monitor,” Matkowski said.
“Kamloops is a community built on hillsides so we’re fairly good at monitoring slopes and being aware of stability issues throughout the city. It’s just a reality of where we live.”
UPDATE – Notice to Residents: The Home Depot entrance to Kenna Cartwright Nature Park will remain temporarily closed. During the closure, City crews will be completing some pre-planned ditch work adjacent to the park entrance along Reservoir Trail. 1/2 https://t.co/1CheNRHHZP
— City of Kamloops (@cityofkamloops) May 13, 2020
Signs outside the #Kamloops Home Depot after the store was closed today due to structural issues.
No word on a possible reopening or exactly how severe the issue is just yet. Staff are directing traffic away from the site. @RadioNLNews pic.twitter.com/ChzadkXGch
— Victor Mario Kaisar (@supermario_47) May 12, 2020
