Province sets late-January timeline for opening Coquihalla to commercial traffic

MERRITT, B.C. — The province says it is aiming to have commercial trucks using the full length of the Coquihalla Highway again by late January.

However in a news conference Thursday (Nov. 25), Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming told reporters that will all depend on what Mother Nature throws at work crews in the coming days and weeks.

“We’re reasonably optimistic that enough temporary repairs can be completed to allow commercial traffic on the corridor in about two months time — by late January,” said Fleming. “With that, I do have to caution that the weather will be a factor, a key consideration in determining whether we can reach that target.”

Crews have found 20 sites along a 130-kilometre stretch of the Coquihalla that were heavily damaged by last week’s historic rainfall and subsequent runoff. The damage includes five bridge spans that were either collapsed or completely washed away.

Since then, crews have begun cleaning up and piecing together what must be done to get traffic flowing on the route once again. More than 100 pieces of equipment have been working 24-hours-a-day, according to Fleming. There is rock-blasting taking place at three sites, equipment is being mobilized to another two, and debris flow cleanup is complete at a further two locations.

“When we do open up, obviously like other highways that have been impacted, it won’t be business as usual on the Coquihalla,” said Fleming. “There will be two segments, each 20-to-30 kilometres in length where the highway will have to have reduced speeds and only one lane in each direction will be possible.”

No traffic — let alone passenger traffic — will be restored on the Coquihalla in time for the holiday season. Restrictions on non-essential travel are in place along Highways 3 and 99 and there is heavy damage that will prevent the re-opening of Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon.

Fleming says the province will only make a decision on passenger traffic once it sees how commercial traffic is able to traverse the repaired Coquihalla.

“It’s going to depend on what kind of pinch points there are on a partially-restored Coquihalla — what kind of queuing there might be and what kind of volumes of traffic it can handle. The decisions will flow from the data based on the repairs that we’re able to make that may bring back access,” he said.

“If there’s something fortunate about the Coquihalla damage, it is that the areas that experienced the most challenging winter conditions were not as impacted and we will have the same road standard as before the storms. This includes Showshed Hill and across the Coquihalla Summit and Larson Hill and the segment from Larson Hill to Merritt.”

Fleming noted his ministry does not yet have any estimate on the cost of the repairs to the Coquihalla.