A culvert washout has caused Atikokan to issue a boil water advisory.
A culvert under Mercury Avenue gave way on Tuesday and caused the section of the road to collapse.
Mayor Rob Ferguson, who was at the site taking a look on Wednesday morning after being out of town when the incident happened, said the road is closed.
“I don't know if it was the high-water event or what caused it to what caused it to fail, but it washed out a sizable culvert,” he said.
"The health and safety of the community was the utmost importance. Luckily, nobody was injured and we have a boil water advisory right now because one of the main water lines went through the culvert.”
Ferguson said since the road is impassable, people will need to use alternate routes.
“So there is a way around it, but it'll be an inconvenience,” he said. “It was destined to be changed anyway. It was the number one priority for the town to change this.”
In a social media post, the municipality said the boil water advisory will remain in effect until further notice. Town officials said all water being used for public consumption needs to be boiled for at least a minute. It can then be stored in a refrigerator.
Ferguson said the advisory will last a least a few days, as three clear tests are needed before it can be lifted.
According to town plans, replacement of the culvert was supposed to take place later this summer.
“It's a little faster than their time frame, but hopefully they can get here and get this repaired, but the road was going to be taken out of service this year,” he said. “It was going to be closed for about a month to get this changed. So this is going to expedite the change, make it a little quicker.”
Ferguson praised town staff for quick action.
“They did a great job, the public works director, the public works crews and our emergency measures. People did a great job on isolating the water, making the area is safe and getting water back on,” he said.
When reached, town staff said they were too busy to comment about the situation.
