Moncton's Jones Lake drained after new sinkhole emerges

The City of Moncton has been forced to again drain Jones Lake after a sinkhole appeared next to the control gates at the mouth of the lake.

The city noticed the sinkhole along the walking trail on April 2 and closed off the area to the public.

In order to assess the problem, the city decided to excavate the area.

Since the surface below falls under the province's jurisdiction, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure also got involved.

The two levels of government dug out the sinkhole and exposed the culverts underneath.

Don Morehouse, the city's director of public works, said the culverts were fully intact.

"But there were signs of infiltration basically where earth could get down inside the culvert and create a void above the culvert therefore and after a while you get a settlement occurring where the walking trail dropped down out of the trigger elevation," he said.

Sarah Bustard, a communications official for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, confirmed that temporary repairs had been made to the culverts.

Crews filled the area with concrete.

Morehouse said the city is considering a long-term fix by completely replacing the culverts but that project is months away.

A long-term fix is not helping one business owner who used to use Jones Lake to offer kayaking demonstrations.

Don Rittwage, the owner of the Kayak Exchange, now takes his customers to Shediac after repeated drainage issues with Jones Lake.

He said the lake is much closer to his shop but because Jones Lake is often empty, he has given up on it.

"I've found that over the last few years the lake has been drained quite often and it makes it very difficult to even suggest to the customer that we used the lake," said Rittwage.