MORE KING TIDES ON THE WAY
A Stanley Park Seawall Update

by Nate Lewis

For a few days in early January, the talk of the town really was the seawall, particularly the Stanley Park section between Lions Gate Bridge and Second Beach.

The old news is that the western side of the seawall was rocked by an extreme weather event on January 6 and 7 that included a King Tide, combined with a storm surge, and winds blowing at speeds of up to 40 knots.

The Stanley Park Seawall as it looked in early January. *(Bernie Steininger Photo)*

“Those factors, combined with a lot of debris and logs from the recent flooding sort of creates the effect of a battering ram and the logs can do a lot of damage to the stonework,” said Ian Stewart, manager of park development for the Vancouver Park Board.

The resulting damage was significant.

The northwestern portion of the seawall between Third Beach and the bridge sustained “very very heavy damage, [which included] massive pavement failure and wall undermining,” Stewart said.

Over the last two weeks, crews have been working to remove logs, boulders, and even some of the capstones that had been affixed to the seawall, which were dislodged by the wave action.

However, Stewart said that the restoration and reopening of this portion of the seawall won’t happen any time soon.

“We're preparing for the next King Tides that are coming. We're going to have King Tides at the end of January and in February,” Stewart explained. “So before we can even talk about beginning any restoration work we've got to get through these tides because they're going to be, again, very significant high tides”

On January 19 the Park Board announced that the seawall would be reopening between Sunset and Second Beach, as well as a small section at Third Beach.

The seawall remains closed between the Second Beach Pool and the Lions Gate Bridge, aside from a small area that can be accessed via the Third Beach parking lot.

Stewart reminded park users to stay out of closed areas for their own safety and the safety of Park Board staff who are working to fix the battered walkway.

The seawall that rings Stanley Park took over 50 years to complete. Walls that began at the Brockton Point lighthouse and the Second Beach bathing area during the First World War would eventually meet in 1971.

The unbroken 8.8 kilometer crescent, “encircled the park in stone,” as author and environmental historian Sean Kheraj put it in his 2013 book Inventing Stanley Park. Park Board records show that, during construction, the purpose of the seawall was to prevent persistent erosion rather than to create a grand tourist attraction.

Nonetheless, the age of this piece of infrastructure makes it vulnerable to extreme weather events like the one in early January.

A guide to current Seawall access and closures. *(Courtesy of Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation)*

The Stanley Park Seawall is a “heritage seawall,” according to Stewart, which the Park Board is “slowly but surely” restoring. Stewart says the areas that had been previously restored were not significantly impacted during the storms at the beginning of the year.

“The investments we’ve been making are paying off… [and] the results have been very solid,” Stewart said. “It’s really those old areas where the old masonry is starting to fail,” where damage occurs.

The section of wall between Siwash Rock and the Lions Gate Bridge is particularly vulnerable, due to its exposed location and the old masonry that has yet to be replaced.

This particular location is a very challenging area to work on. The tidal zone at the first narrows makes construction work dangerous, with work being restricted in the time of day and duration that it can be worked on.

“We’re doing what we can but it’s a slow process,” Stewart concluded.