If the escarpment plans to “muddy the waters,” so to speak, for smooth spring commuting prospects, the City of Whitehorse has grimly placed it on notice.

The unwelcome surprise element of stealthy slides under the secrecy of darkness isn’t in the 2024 game plan.

Slope instability along the clay cliff, notably paralleling Robert Service Way, has evolved into a regular phenomenon, the city acknowledges.

Consequently, spring closures to the key traffic artery and nearby trails should be anticipated annually until a rock-solid solution can be financed and applied.

The city delivered that portrait of the contemporary realities to motorists and pedestrians on Thursday.

Officials have unleashed a veritable landslide of electronic and visual escarpment monitoring and maintenance strategies, media representatives were told at a morning briefing.

This is the narrative of the city “building onto the knowledge we have gained in the past two years,” said Mayor Laura Cabott.

“Closing Robert Service Way and the Millennium Trail is a decision not to be taken lightly, and we will only do it if we need to.

“We are doing everything we can to keep Robert Service Way open this spring,” the mayor said.

Slides beside the road occurred in April 2022 and April 2023, closing it and the Millennium Trail for several weeks and jamming morning and afternoon commuter traffic on other routes, particularly Two Mile Hill.

“We are preparing for potential instability along the escarpment,” said Taylor Eshpeter, the city’s manager of engineering services.

“We will be installing a sheet wall along the highest-risk part of Robert Service Way.”

Members of city concil heard the same prognosis at their meeting Monday evening.

“We do expect another season where the escarpment is active,” Tracy Allen, the city’s director of infrastructure and operations, told council.

“We will be adjusting and potentially looking at road closures to mitigate the risk.”

At Thursday’s briefing, Eshpeter thanked the team of city crews, engineers and consultants for their roles in monitoring and managing the towering slope’s risks.

“Despite the unusually warm weather, as of Thursday, no movement had been detected in areas that aren’t snow-covered, he told reporters.

The clay cliff will be observed through a variety of methods, including:

radar-based slope scanning, an operation based in Riverdale that began Wednesday, enabling real-time information;

• visual inspections;

• groundwater level monitoring;

• targeted survey monitoring of critical slope areas; and

• drone surveys.

Last year was a test year for the scanner’s capabilities.

“It gave us good warnings on some of the movement last year,” Eshpeter said.

The city is acquiring 400 concrete lock-blocks to build a retaining wall at any area of shifting that’s detected.

“This will help mitigate against small-volume slides along Robert Service Way,” the city said in a statement.

Traffic lanes will also be proactively moved away from the base of the escarpment, likely at the beginning of April, unless conditions change significantly.

The city is also planning for a long-term solution along the escarpment “that will be pretty costly,” Cabott noted.

It’s looking to realign the north end of Robert Service Way by moving it away from the base of the escarpment and re-grading the slope in 2026.

Cabott estimates $2 million has been spent on the landslides problems and mitigation measures over the past two years.

In partnership with the Yukon government, the city has applied for $60 million from the federal government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund to support the long-term aim of reducing the impacts of potential future slides.

The application was filed in July 2023, and the city and territory continue to await a response.

Visiting Ottawa earlier this year, Cabott discussed the city’s plight with Harjit Sajjan, the federal minister responsible for emergency preparedness, and Richard Cannings, an NDP MP who is his party’s critic for these matters.

“We will push that a little bit to see where that application is,” Cabott told the briefing. “We are going to prod a little bit there.”

She believes Whitehorse is the only northern community to have sought assistance from the fund.

“There are many communities applying for this money,” Cabott said.

“All the boxes are ticked off as to why this is important .... Getting an answer back from the federal government on these things takes some time.”

If Robert Service Way is once again barricaded this spring, Eshpeter conceded, “there will be impacts. We would encourage people to spread out travel time and take transit and car-pool.”

Cabott added, “People should start to think about some alternatives. I encourage people to start thinking about that ahead of a possible closure.

“We know it affects us all, but safety first.”

During question period in the legislature Thursday, Patti McLeod, the Yukon Party MLA for Watson Lake, asked Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn how much funding his government will provide to help the city resolve the mudslide problems.

He said the government continues to act on the local predicament with its partners.

“We are working very collaboratively with the city,” Mostyn said, noting the government’s involvement with the city’s pursuit of the federal funding.

“We are very supportive of this option,” he said.