Two more sections of road in Wheatley are reopening more than a year after the downtown was devastated by a massive gas explosion.
Elm Street between Erie Street North and Little Street and Foster Street between Erie Street North and Victoria Street are slated to reopen to traffic by the end of Tuesday, according to a media release issued Monday by the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.
Public works director Ryan Brown said these sections of road are able to reopen since the company contracted to do drilling at the blast site has completed its work.
Security personnel will remain at the site of the reduced evacuation zone on a 24-hour basis, he added.
The municipality is planning to implement a scrubber system to capture any hydrogen sulphide gas released at the site from the monitoring well during an interim monitoring period.
This could lead to a further reduction of the evacuation zone and the reopening of Erie Street North between Elm and Talbot Road, Brown said.
The current flare stack at the site will remain as a backup system for the time being as an additional safety measure, he added.
Options to allow pedestrian traffic along the street are being discussed as part of that plan.
Brown said reopening the streets will provide a much improved east-west traffic flow through the community.
Gas was first identified at the Erie Street North site in June of 2021, which prompted the immediate evacuation of homes and businesses in the area.
The following month, three-dozen homes and businesses were evacuated after hydrogen sulphide – a poisonous, corrosive and flammable gas – was again detected at the downtown site.
On Aug. 26, toxic gas detectors raised the alarm that afternoon, providing municipal staff and emergency crews enough time to clear the area before a blast destroyed two buildings about 90 minutes later.
Twenty people suffered minor injuries from the explosion.