Beginning Thursday, Metro Vancouver will be testing the alarms at four sites along the river, which are being installed as an interim warning system in hopes of preventing another tragedy like the one that killed two people last October.
VANCOUVER More than seven months after a North Vancouver father and son drowned in the Capilano River, Metro Vancouver is seeking input from the public to improve safety in the area.
Last October, a torrent of water was unleashed from the Cleveland Dam during maintenance. Ryan Nickerson, 61, was fishing with his 27-year-old son Hugh at the time. Both were swept away and didn t survive.
An investigation into the incident later found it was human error relating to programming that caused the fatal spill. We recognize the impact that this has had on everyone involved and are committed to ensuring this never happens again, a statement on Metro Vancouver s website says.
VANCOUVER Warning sirens are being installed along the Capilano River, six months after an accident at the river’s Cleveland Dam took the lives of a father and son. The pair had been fishing on the banks of the river, when a human error caused the dam gates to open without warning on Oct. 1, 2020. The river’s water level surged, and at least five people along the river banks were swept away. Three of the people survived, but the father and son didn’t make it. Sixty-one-year-old Ryan Nickerson’s body was recovered within hours, but his son’s body, that of 27-year-old Hugh, was never found. Since then, friends and family members have been advocating for changes.
VANCOUVER CTV News has obtained a pair of Cleveland Dam safety review reports, commissioned years apart, which show Metro Vancouver did not immediately implement all safety recommendations, including some pertaining to the drum gate at the centre of a fatal accident that claimed the lives of a father and son last year. At least five people were swept down the Capilano River after the drum gate was fully opened without warning on Oct. 1. Among those caught up in the rushing waters were 61-year-old Ryan Nickerson and his 27-year-old son Hugh. Ryan Nickerson’s body was recovered within hours, but Hugh could not be immediately located, and after several days an extensive search by North Shore Rescue and the RCMP was called off.
Memorial Park reaches construction milestone on $70 million land bridge
Ryan Nickerson, Staff writer
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The installation of the first tunnel arches has begun at Memorial Park, marking a construction milestone for the Land Bridge and Prairie Project.
The arch segments currently being erected are for the two tunnels going over the eastern mound of Memorial Drive and once those are completed, the west mound tunnels will begin.
Memorial Drive will remain open throughout the bridge construction, according to the Memorial Park Conservancy, but traffic has been reduced from three lanes to two each way within the project area.
“Memorial Park’s Land Bridge and Prairie will be the first that aims to restore a major urban park in America by creating an improved drainage system and restoring the fragile and degraded ecology through a multi-year landscape conversion project,” said Thomas Woltz, owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Architects, the lead design firm for the Mast