Traffic flowing again near inter-provincial crossing after beaver dam collapse washes out road

Cars are again able to easily access the Ontario-Quebec border crossing at Portage du Fort after Storyland Road was washed out, up to Chenaux Road, over the weekend.

The collapse of a beaver dam on property adjacent to Storyland Road, one of the busiest arteries between the two provinces, resulted in the temporary closure of the road on Saturday.

At approximately 4:45 p.m., calls were made to 911 reporting a large amount of water pouring onto the road from the former Storyland Children’s Park, now the site of Elements Glamping.

Members of the Renfrew Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) closed the section of Storyland Road (County Road 4) between River Road and Chenaux Road until shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Although the road is located in Horton Township, it is a County of Renfrew road and county crews arrived on scene around 5:30 p.m., Saturday, to begin repairs.

Richard Bolduc, manager of operations for the County of Renfrew, said the beaver dam collapse was rare for that section of roadway.

“I have asked around and this is the first beaver dam incident in several years, and we are going back decades in terms of anyone remembering something like this,” he said. “The good news is we had crews on site rather quickly considering this happened on a Saturday afternoon and the crews got to work right away. The section of roadway and shoulders impacted by the water was about 80 meters in length and they stayed on site until after two o’clock in the morning on Sunday to ensure the road was safe and in good condition.”

He said a section of roadway had to be replaced and the shoulders were reinforced with soil. Crews were expected to revisit the site on Monday to try and determine the location of the break and to inspect the roadway to see if any further reinforcements or repairs were required.

“We were lucky in one way in that the damage was not as severe as other washouts that have occurred over the years and no culverts were damaged on Saturday,” Bolduc said.

With the beaver dam located on private property, county staff are not authorized to go on to the property to determine the exact location of the beaver dam without the owner’s consent. It is not known whether the owner has been in contact with county staff.

“If there was any damage to adjacent properties from the dam break then that is an issue between the individual property owners and we only become involved if a beaver dam burst is on county property,” Bolduc said.