Stanley Park seawall closed by wind, wave damage

An older, delicate part of the Stanley Park seawall collapsed yesterday due to wind and wave damage, leading the Vancouver Park Board to close a stretch of the iconic pathway indefinitely for repairs.

The seawall is closed between 3rd Beach and Lions Gate Bridge while park board staff assess the damage.

A park ranger noticed late Sunday that a chunk of the outer wall about nine metres wide had fallen into the ocean, said Howard Normann, the acting director of park operations.

The broken section faces west — about 100 metres from Siwash Rock — and is built on packed rock and sand

"We're quite concerned that this will erode further and cause more ... pieces of our seawall to break off," he said.

"This is one of our original pieces of seawall. There was no rebar involved, so a fairly delicate part of the seawall once this starts to happen."

It's not clear how long the broken section will take to repair. Normann said the work could only be done at low tide.

"Our low tides right now are not that low, and they are in the evening, so it's a bit of a challenge," he said.

Unrelated slope maintenance was also scheduled to close parts of the seawall between Ferguson Point and Prospect Point from Nov. 16 to 27.