Now that Highway 99 has reopened, some are questioning whether the government could have done more to stabilize Porteau Cove, which is already stained by a series of rockslide-related deaths.A number of lives have been lost in years past due to rockslides at Porteau Cove. The last incident took place in 1991 when a rockslide killed a 43-year old Squamish man. He died after a boulder 12 inches in diameter smashed through his windshield. The Ministry of Transportation (MOT) responded to the death by installing 3,000 metres of steel anchors into the rock.A few years earlier, in the spring of 1987, falling rocks in the Porteau Cove area struck a car carrying two passengers. In 1982, a woman was killed and her father was disabled by falling rocks at Porteau Cove. The Supreme Court of Canada found that, "the province owes a duty of care, which ordinarily extends to their reasonable maintenance, to those using its highwaysThat maintenance could be found to extend to the prevention of injury from falling rock."Squamish geotechnical engineer Frank Baumann has sounded warning bells over the area for several years. "Ministry of Transportation, in my opinion, does not do enough to manage these natural hazards," he said. He said he was "appalled" by the area's instability. "This really makes me wonder how effective the earlier attempts at stabilization and rock bolting have been and whether that earlier work would meet current standards," he said.Geotechnical experts have long been aware of the area's susceptibility to rockslides. A 1992 report describing geology mapping in the Squamish area noted that, "The Porteau Cove bluffs provide an excellent example of an area susceptible to rock fall hazards."A 1987 report in the Squamish Times, described the area as a "slumbering time bomb" that posed a threat not only during heavy rains but all year round. MOT's chief geotechnical, materials and pavements engineer Michael Oliver said bolting had been done on the bluffs in the '60s, '80s and '90s with the most recent bolting done in 2003. After last week's rockslide, MOT chose not to install more bolts in the bluff, choosing instead to blast rock."The theory is once it's gone, it's not a problem," Oliver said.
