Workers have begun removing a massive toppled crane that has blocked a major Vancouver thoroughfare for more than two weeks, but officials don’t expect traffic on the road to return to normal until Labor Day weekend.

Saul Schwebs, Vancouver’s chief construction official, said Wednesday that he does not expect the dismantling and removal of the crane that collapsed across West 41st Avenue to take longer than Friday.

However, Schwebs said workers still need to repair all the infrastructure that was damaged on August 6, when a fire at a construction site caused a crane to topple, tearing a nearby house in half.

“There is a dent of about four cubic meters in 41st Avenue that needs to be filled by the people from the engineering department,” Schwebs said at a press conference on site on Wednesday.

“Also, Coast Mountain Bus needs to restore the streetcar lines. I think some of the internet cable providers have some work to do – hopefully they can get that work done without further disruption to service, and then BC Hydro needs to fix some of its infrastructure as well.”

Schwebs said the goal is to have everything in place by Labor Day, about 12 days from now, so that bus routes can be up and running again before students return to the nearby University of British Columbia.

WorkSafeBC, the province’s occupational health and safety agency, gave the go-ahead for the crane clearance operation on Tuesday, and Schwebs said most of the debris should be cleared from the site by Thursday, but more cleanup work may still be required.

Schwebs said emergency services and investigators need time to develop an evacuation plan to secure evidence to investigate the cause of the incident and to ensure that no further damage is caused.

“We know how to set up cranes and how to take them down,” he said. “How to remove them from the road is another matter… we’re afraid they’ll shift, we’re afraid they’ll tip over. There are still occupied houses next door.”

The crane collapse occurred during a fire in a six-story building under construction in the Dunbar neighborhood, which spread and damaged nine homes.

According to official reports, three houses have been destroyed or are so badly damaged that the residents are still unable to return.

Miranda Myles of Vancouver’s Emergency Management Agency says the city is still supporting 15 people who were left homeless by the incident.

Myles said the fire and crane collapse initially left 81 people homeless.

Trevor Connelly, deputy chief of operations for Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, said the investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.

“I can tell you that the fire has been ruled an accident, but the exact cause of the fire is not yet known at this time,” Connelly said.

“There are a lot of tradesmen working in this building during this construction phase, so there are a number of possible causes. But we have not yet been able to determine the exact cause.”

Schwebs said the collapsed crane will be demolished rather than salvaged, adding that the investigation will likely lead to some regulatory changes to prevent similar accidents in the future.

“I think we’re going to learn a lot from this incident,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened. I feel for the people who were involved or affected … but the positive thing is that we’re going to learn some positive lessons from it.”

“We pay attention to these things, we learn from them and they help us prevent them in the future.”

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