Work to repair and reopen Coquihalla for essential travel expected to take two months

The Coquihalla Highway will stay closed for another few months, as some major work is needed to repair and restore the highway.

During Thursday’s press conference, Minister of Transportation, Rob Fleming, said the highway sustained some serious damage.

“All told, about 20 sites have been damaged or washed away, and that is about 130 kilometres of the corridor that is affected,” said Fleming.

“This includes five bridges where spans completely collapsed or were otherwise heavily damaged, and this is going to be a daunting task to get that highway back to being fully operational.”

The minister added that work is underway at those sites, with over 100 pieces of equipment working around the clock to restore temporary access. Rock blasting is also being done at three sites, and equipment is being mobilized to two other locations.

Two large debris flow sites along Highway 5 have now been cleared.

Speaking on more of the specific sites, Fleming said temporary bridges are being installed at the Jessica and the Bottletop Bridge locations, as both have collapsed spans that need to be demolished. Construction access has also been built at the Caroline Bridge; work is ongoing to protect the abutments at the Brody Bridge; and crews are rebuilding lanes at four different sites in the Murray Flats area.

“We’re also conducting the Coquihalla in-river work, this is happening at many sites to prevent further erosion and properly channel the water back under the main spans,” said Fleming.

With the temporary repairs underway, Fleming said he’s optimistic that commercial traffic could be back using the corridor in two months, but does caution that the weather will play a significant role in determining wether than late January target can be reached.

“When we do open up, obviously like other highways that have opened up, it won’t be business as usual on the Coquihalla. 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,” said Fleming.

He noted there are some positives, pointing to the fact that the areas that are most impacted by winter conditions were not impacted by the storm event.

Fleming added that it’s not yet known how much it will cost the province to complete all the repairs, but he did say “we’re throwing all the resources we need to get the Coquihalla ready for the plan that we adopt to repair it to some functionality.”

He also stated Thursday that Highway 1 in the Fraser Valley has reopened, adding that he was pleased to see that, despite the road being underwater for some time

He said the road surface condition is still good and the electrical and lighting system is functioning properly. However he cautioned drivers that the area is still ‘swampy’ and asked they go slow along that route.

READ MORE: Key section of Highway 1 reopening today