WATCH: It started out as a relatively minor crash. A crane truck flipped into a muddy ditch on a quiet rural road in Central Saanich yesterday evening. But today, officials realized they had a much bigger problem on their hands. April Lawrence was out at the site on Lochside Drive.
A crane truck rollover on Lochside Drive in Central Saanich has spilled oil and officials say it will take the weekend to lift the truck up.
Central Saanich police said the industrial truck wound up on its side around 5 p.m. and there were no injuries, but oil leak mats, a dam and boom have been deployed to contain the spill.
A truck rollover on Lochside Drive, just north of Martindale Road in Central Saanich. Crews are assessing how to remove the vehicle, which might take until sometime next week.
“He just simply moved over to the side of the road to let traffic get by and due to the weight of the crane, it’s a 60-ton crane, he just went into that soft shoulder and it just slowly went over on its side,” Const. Glen Davies with Central Saanich Police said.
The crash happened just north of Martindale Road.
A crew from Peninsula Towing is at the scene assessing what is required to remove the vehicle.
“If you’re ever a little kid and walking in mud and try to pull your gumboot out of it, that’s basically it. It’s very very soggy,” Don Affleck, owner of Peninsula Towing said.
Trees will need to be cut down and gravel brought in to build up the other side of the road to allow recovery equipment to be used to get the truck out. And underneath the road surface is a water main that provides water to every home on the Saanich Peninsula.
“We’re recovering our emergency response plans to make sure we’re in a place to deal with the worst case scenario,” Matt McCrank, Capital Regional District Infrastructure Operations Manager, said.
If the truck does damage a pipe as it’s being pulled out, McCrank said there should be no impact to the community’s water supply.
“We do have storage up in the peninsula to provide water for a period of hours to the peninsula communities,” Matt McCrank.
Traffic is moving through the scene but is limited to single-lane alternating.
As of Friday afternoon, heavy equipment was being brought in to lift up the crane truck. A hydro vac truck will suck up mud and debris to pinpoint where the water main is and then crews will build a pad for the tow crane to sit on as the rural road can’t support the weight.
“We want to make sure the road stays intact. We want to make sure the water line stays intact as well as the crane,” Affleck said.
It will likely take all weekend to lift the crane truck.
1 HP heavy equipment being brought in to life the crane truck.
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