After more than two months, the City of Edmonton has lifted its voluntary suspension of all tunnelling activities at its work sites.
The temporary suspension was put in place Nov. 2, one day after a 44-year old city employee was killed underground while working on a sanitation sewer project in the city’s southwest.
That site remains under a stop-work order imposed by the province.
The city lifted its suspension on Jan. 16, city spokesperson Holly Budd said.
“The city’s OH&S [Occupational Health and Safety] team worked with the drainage construction teams to thoroughly review all procedures, and provide refresher training, before recommending to senior leadership their comfort in lifting the voluntary suspension,” Budd said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
A city investigation is ongoing, said Budd.
Workers involved in tunnelling were reassigned during the temporary suspension.
There are seven drainage projects currently underway in the city but Budd said not all involve tunnelling with machines.
Provincial stop-work order remains
Meanwhile, a stop-work order remains in place at the SW4 site at Ellerslie Road and 142nd Street where the city worker was killed.
“That will remain in place until a conveyor machine on the work site is certified safe by an engineer,” said Lauren Welsh, spokesperson for Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.
The machine’s involvement in the death of the worker is still under investigation, but it was in the area where the death happened, Welsh said.
There’s no timeline for when the stop-work order could be lifted.
“That happens when OHS is satisfied that the work site is safe, so they’ll take as much time as necessary,” she added.
Mike Scott, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 30, declined comment on the city’s decision to lift the voluntary suspension.
The City of Edmonton temporarily suspended tunnelling on all its projects on Nov.2 following the death of a city employee. (Lydia Neufeld)