Residents of Erie Shore Drive will now be able to access their properties.
On Monday night, council approved reopening the road one way to local traffic only.
A section of the roadway was closed indefinitely on March 9 for emergency repairs after it discovered that there was a five to 40 per cent chance the dike could fail, resulting in catastrophic flooding. The decision left many residents scrambling to find housing and fearing foreclosure.
According to Thomas Kelly, manager of engineering and infrastructure, the intent is not to allow residents to move back in but instead a chance to let them access their properties to maintain their homes or cottages.
Kelly said the work done over the last month has reduced the probability of a breach to less than 10 per cent. There are still areas of concern on the roadway, though. Kelly said the municipality wanted to reach a compromised solution to give residents a chance to access their properties.
He added that the road will be closed during any adverse weather. He is also reminding residents to always use an abundance of caution in the area.
"We had a great number of discussions about this internally, trying to find that right solution,"he said. "It is a safe place when the weather is good. This gives the homeowners an opportunity to go in and look at their places, check on them and if there's any maintenance that needs to be done they have that opportunity to do that."
Councillor Trevor Thompson questioned what had changed in the last month to make it go from an indefinite road closure to being able to open so quickly. According to Kelly, there were several factors that came into play.
"We got a real break when we had a supplier come forward and tell us they had clay available for us. We were also able to mobilize a lot of the work in-house. Back in the early stage, we worked around the clock as much as we could including Saturday and Sunday to get the work done as quickly as we could," Kelly explained. "All of those factors created the situation that we're in now. I'm still concerned with some of the commentaries I'm hearing that there's a feeling we're out of the woods... the probability of [of a breach] is still at 10 per cent or less. It still warrants that we could have some serious concerns."
For Thompson, he said the reopening of a road was great news but also felt like a "mixed blessing."
"We did a lot of good work, don't get me wrong. But before we pat ourselves on the back, we still have ruined lives out there especially in regards to this reopening of the roadway," said Thompon. "People moved out believing they would never go back. Some people walked away from their houses, handed them over to someone... other individuals have spent tens of thousands of dollars in moving costs, finding a new place to live, signing multi-month or year-long leases and now four weeks later, we're telling them they can go home. There's a viewpoint out there that we didn't do our homework before we started this exercise. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm saying that's the viewpoint."
Had the work not have been done, Kelly said he strongly believes there would have been a major breach during heavy rain that occurred towards the end of March.
"We needed to act quickly and we did and we got it done just in time," he said.
Kelly is also recommending an open swing gate with a clip be placed at the entrance of the road to prevent non-residents and gawkers from entering, something he said has been a big problem. He added that anyone who is not a guest, property owner or tenant may face getting a ticket if they are caught driving down the roadway.
"We have seen that significantly both during construction and just prior to construction," said Kelly. "Because of the nature of the road itself and my concerns about the overall safety, the residents will have a much better feel for when it's safe and when it's not. But those who are just driving through will not."
Administration will be coming back to council on May 4 to discuss long term solutions for Erie Shore Drive as well as with the findings from the Zuzek Shoreline Study.