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Recovery effort underway in Harrison for tipped excavator

Engineers on site evaluating how to move machinery that was building a road
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Ted Burch (centre) and others survey the site at Rockwell Drive in Harrison where an excavator has tipped while working to punch through a road. The incident happened on Friday afternoon

An excavator working to punch out a new road on a steep slope in Harrison on Friday toppled over due to operator error, not slope instability, according to the overseeing engineers.

Burch Engineering was on site Saturday morning following the incident, coordinating a recovery for the heavy machinery. The operator was not seriously injured when then excavator tipped. It was one of two heavy machines working on the new road.

While the recovery of the machine would take at least two other machines — one to hold it steady and the other to move it — that was expected to happen Saturday. A representative of Burch said that the close proximity of the BC Hydro expansion project meant that plenty of heavy duty machines were nearby.

Once a crane and excavator are in place, the recovery would take about an hour. Burch Engineering stated that the site was "extremely safe" and that the slope has no instability.

The fact the machinery did not fall down the hill when toppled shows the stability of the slope, they underlined. The road will be a 12% grade, at the beginning of Rockwell Drive, and is meant to connect future housing to the main road.

In 2013, the Village of Harrison Hot Springs received an application to build the road and granted approval. There is a preliminary land use agreement in place.

A second excavator continued working on clearing the roadway on Saturday.

Watch this website for updates to this story.

news@ahobserver.com



Jessica Peters

About the Author: Jessica Peters

I began my career in 1999, covering communities across the Fraser Valley ever since.
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