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Robert Service Way reopening tomorrow morning

Barriers will be removed for traffic June 17
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Barriers closing off access to Robert Service Way from the roundabout at Fourth Avenue to just before Yukon Energy will be removed to allow traffic through on June 17. (Stephanie Waddell/Yukon News file)

Robert Service Way will reopen on the morning of June 17.

The City of Whitehorse announced the reopening via social media around 2:30 p.m. on June 16, noting that with the sheet piling wall and soil berm in place, crews will clean up and the road will be open to traffic in the morning.

A large section of the road — one of the main routes in and out of downtown — has been shut since April 30 due to a landslide that sent debris down the escarpment across the roadway and into the Yukon River. The slide also took out rail tracks, a light standard and a guardrail. Sections of the Millennium Trail and airport trail have been closed.

The sheet piling wall is being installed as a temporary measure that could form part of a longer-term solution the city is looking at to deal with future slides.

Further escarpment slides in other areas have followed with much of the downtown escarpment area closed off.

The slides are being caused by saturated soils brought on by the record snowfall this past winter.

While the road will be open, the Millennium trail will remain closed for the time being.

“The affected section of the Millennium Trail will remain closed to keep pedestrians out of the slide area for the time being, and the public is instructed to stay out of closed sections along the escarpment,” the city said.

The city will continue monitoring the entire escarpment. Anyone who witnesses a slide is asked to call the city’s trouble line at 667-2111, or, in the event of an emergency, to call 9-1-1.

Contact Stephanie Waddell at stephanie.waddell@yukon-news.com



Stephanie Waddell

About the Author: Stephanie Waddell

I joined Black Press in 2019 as a reporter for the Yukon News, becoming editor in February 2023.
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