A group of Burnaby roommates found themselves on the wrong side of a landslide Thursday morning.
SFU student Steven Robertson and some of his seven roommates were on their way to work and school when they came upon a jumble of concrete, mud and rocks blocking the only road access to their house.
A retaining wall on the slope above had collapsed, sending a wave of debris onto a public lane 鈥� the only access by car to 7235 Bayview Dr., where the roommates live.
One of them, Eric Bhujbal, said it took them a while to figure out where the mess had come from.
鈥淲e genuinely had no idea,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e thought someone came and messed up the road overnight maybe.鈥�
Robertson said he thought maybe an earthquake had triggered it.
The roommates reported the slide, and their cars have been trapped behind it ever since.
It鈥檚 been a major headache for Robertson who works at Grouse Mountain and now spends about one-and-a-half to two hours on public transit to get there.
鈥淵eah, it sucks. I鈥檝e gotta take three buses,鈥� he said.
Like all of the roommates, he now has to hoof it through another private property next to their house to get to a bus stop.
City crews have begun hauling away the debris, but there鈥檚 no word on when the lane will be passable.
Brian Carter, manager of public works operations, said it depends on advice from geotechnical staff.
He said crews also have to remove a section of the retaining wall that鈥檚 still standing.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just as simple as going up and taking it down with an excavator,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to do it safely. There鈥檚 a load behind it of dirt and other things and there鈥檚 another wall there so we want to make sure we have engineers involved and we do it safely.鈥�
A city officials at the site estimated 50 dump-truck loads of debris had cascaded down the hill.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember the last time I responded to a failed retaining wall like that,鈥� Carter said.
He said the city will 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� be investigating the collapse.
鈥淲e鈥檒l have our engineering department in concert probably with our legal department, our building department,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檒l be several people that鈥檒l start investigating 鈥� maybe that property and the surrounding properties and how it got to the state it was in.鈥�
As of Friday afternoon, houses on Barnet Road, below the slide were still without power.
A number of homes were evacuated.
