I’ve been seeing workers, heavy equipment, and big changes on the section of drainage canal that collapsed this past February. It’s been kind of exciting to see them actually working on it at last. I wonder how the area will look once they’ve finished repairing it.

For background, if you haven’t been avidly following my monitoring of the canal’s progress for the past ten months….

Back in February, there was a lot of rain, and the ground underneath the pavement on a section of the Suimon River became oversaturated. A small section of the canal wall collapsed into the river, as a result, and the entire roadway and remaining wall became unstable. Crews came through and cut down the trees lining that area (which were leaning dangerously and threatening to bring down more roadway), roped off the area, and eventually set up giant sandbags to hold back the earth and help stabilize everything for awhile. This was obviously a stopgap method and not permanent, however, so I’ve been waiting with baited breath to see some actual progress. And that progress finally seems to be at hand!

So that brings us to where we are now. It’s not pretty, but it’s definitely progress. I wonder how long it will take to finish the repairs. I can’t really see them blocking off the river entirely, but the damage definitely extended to the water level… I’m sure it will be a rather elaborate and time-consuming process. Best of the luck to the crew on the project!